Life in Anneville, Kentucky, located in the backwoods of the backwoods, was not easy in 1915, the year David Akeman was born. His family were farmers who barely scraped by. Entertainment had to be provided by the local folks themselves. Thus arose bluegrass music, which was prolific in the rural areas of Tennessee and Kentucky.
David took a shine to music. He came by it naturally. His parents were musicians as well. When he was seven, he took an old shoebox and some thread his mom gave him and created his first instrument. Five years later, he traded two of his prize bantam chickens to a friend for his first real banjo.
Akeman loved playing and entertaining, and was soon making the circuit of local honky-tonks and playing at dances and such. He was having a great time, but the Depression was on, and he needed to eat. The pittances he earned at gigs weren't cutting it.
So he got a government job, building roads for the Civilian Conservation Corps. But he yearned to be a professional musician.
One day, established local musical star Asa Martin held a contest, looking for new talent for his own band. Akeman's self-taught banjo pickin' got him a gig with Martin's band for enough money to live on. Sweet!
One night, Asa stumbled over his name when introducing him. So he just improvised "String Beans." The name fit the tall, lanky performer perfectly, and he became known as Stringbean from then on.
The name also made it easy for him to showcase his comedic talents. Soon, Stringbean was known as the slightly goofy banjo-picking wonder on Asa'a band.
Stringbean rode Asa'a coattails as far as they would go, but soon ventured out with other groups, and even played a little semi-pro baseball. He caught the attention of another part-time ball player, one Bill Monroe.
The King of bluegrass soon had Stringbean playing with his prestigious group, and he enjoyed three years of touring and performing with them. Then, Bill decided it was time for a change, and replaced him with another banjo player by the name of Earl Scruggs.
Stringbean married his lifelong bride, Estelle, in 1945, and joined up with another banjo picker with a knack for humor by the name of Louis Jones. You may know him better as Grandpa.
Stringbean found himself a regular performer on the biggest country music stage in the world, the Grand Ole Opry. he would appear alongside Grandpa Jones as well as other gigs with Lew Childre. He had thoroughly adopted the Stringbean identity by then, wearing a long nightshirt with short pants and that goofy hat.
He played the Opry throughout the 50's and 60's. Then, in 1969, he and his buddy Grandpa were approached about appearing as regulars for a summer replacement for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The show's Canadian producers were looking for a rural answer to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. They were fans of the Opry, and had signed several of its long-time stars.
Hee Haw garnered decent ratings, but CBS was in the middle of its infamous "rural purge," dumping shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Mayberry R.F.D. in an effort to go after a younger demographic. But the show's producers put a syndication deal together, and it was soon appearing in rural areas like New York, Los Angeles, and, of course, small southern communities.
The money was flowing rapidly into the Akeman household by now. Stringbean, like many Depression survivors, didn't trust banks. He also didn't like to appear affluent. So he and Estelle lived in a modest little cabin in the Kentucky woods (though he did spring for a Cadillac).
On the Saturday night of November 10, 1973, Stringbean and Estelle returned from an evening out. They were accosted by two 23-year-olds in their home, cousins John A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown. The burglars shot them dead. The next morning, neighbor Grandpa Jones found the bodies.
The murderers figured Stringbean had money hidden on site. They left with a chain saw and some guns, but no cash. 23 years later, $20,000 in decomposed cash was found behind a brick above the fireplace.
Stringbean was one of my favorite Hee Haw performers. Here's to his memory.
Comments (7)
Good post! I just got into the stringman recently
earlier this year. So sad, per the gangland hit
way he went out, but, all things considered, what a life he had! And don't leave cash behind bricks or under your bed, cause the good folks from the FDIC are good for it! Something does tell me that there might be more to the guy that at first glance. Why was he holing away cash, and why would someone figure Stringy had concealed cash squirrled away? I think Stringy
was into bootlegging and such in the 30's, and
had the habit of hiding the cash. Who knows what he was into in his later years?
That being said, he was actually funny as hell.
Like Grampa Jones, his talents were actually
of a high caliber. Country is a strange thing,
in that its the only genre with comedian singers.
Not so with rock(except maybe Wayne's World,
Spinal Tap, etc.), or blues,jazz,classical, etc.
Minnie Pearl, Tennessee Williams Ford, Junior
Samples(now there was a hilarious guy...who can forget the "PHHHHHHZZZ, and he's gone" song on Hee Haw, or the Hillbillies sleeping on the porch with the dog sketches?, not to mention Junio popping up out of the cornfield with LULU?
Nice rip-off of the joke wall sketch at the end of laugh-in, btw!)and the like were comedian-singers, who were about 70% comedian and 30% singer. And I don't believe Minnie Pearl sang at
all. Dolly Parton and Flats and Skruggs were de facto comedians, with as much Schtick as bona fide ones.....even now, look at Reba with her own comedy sitcom......so country just simply lends itself to such a genre as comedian-singers. Why, who knows? Just enjoy!
And what the hell was that mass call the hee-haw gang said in the cornfield? Something like
Yeeeeeeeghhhh-hawwwwwwghhhhhhhhhhh! or something.
Posted by Scott | October 19, 2007 8:57 AM
Posted on October 19, 2007 08:57
Scott, don't forget non-country comedic singers, like Allen Sherman and Weird Al Yancovic.
Anyway, this New Yorker born and raised fan of Stringbean and the whole Hee Haw gang, especially Misty Rowe. I once got to meet Grandpa Jones in person; he was a real friendly guy and very funny.
Posted by David S Paleg | October 20, 2007 6:09 AM
Posted on October 20, 2007 06:09
Ahh, the late great allen sherman....what a character he was......I would say that he and
al yank were in a genre called song parody...
remember homer and jethro's summer camp parody?
Same thing we did as kids on the bus....a good
new post would be some of those songs we sang as kids...The whole batman smells, robin laid an egg thing. Weird Al took that thing we did on school
buses, and turned it into a whole sub-genre of music. And good for him!
Posted by scott | October 20, 2007 8:04 PM
Posted on October 20, 2007 20:04
Please forgive my referring to the great
Tennessee Ernie Ford as Tennessee Williams Ford.
"Heyyyyyyyy Stellllllaahhhhh!"
Posted by scott | October 20, 2007 8:19 PM
Posted on October 20, 2007 20:19
that was sad how he and his wife died but that is a great story though
Posted by sam | January 13, 2008 10:41 PM
Posted on January 13, 2008 22:41
I ALWAYS THOUGHT STRING LIVED IN TENNESSEE WHEN HE WAS KILLED. I RECEIVED A COUPLE OF LETTERS FROM GRANDPA JONES WITH A TENNESSEE ADDRESS ON THEM. GRANDPA AND STRINGBEAN WERE NEIGHBORS.
Posted by CHIP NALL | January 30, 2008 4:32 PM
Posted on January 30, 2008 16:32
I lived between Grandpa Jones and Stringbean.Not to say we were neighbors because I never met either one.But it was Goodletsville,Tennessee where we lived.And the reason he had the money hidden away was not because he was a bootlegger.It was just because he didn't trust banks.And the rumors were strong that he had money hidden away which is why they chose to rob him.They thought he was away from home taping the HeeHaw show.It was unfortunate that he came home.
Posted by Mike Bessey | June 5, 2008 1:36 AM
Posted on June 5, 2008 01:36