Spade Cooley

He was convicted of murdering his second wife Ella Mae over alleged infidelities--they had an argument and he beat her to death. The murder happened on April 3, 1961 in front of his 14-year-old daughter Melody. He was sentenced to life in prison. He was furloughed in 1969 to appear at a police benefit show. While waiting backstage to come on, he had a sudden heart attack and died.
His first hit song "Shame, Shame on You", became his theme song. He was dubbed the "King of Western Swing". He was so successful as a singer and musician, he owned two properties in southern California and a yacht.
During his incarceration at the California State Prison in Vacaville, he used to offer hand-made guitars as a prize for the institution's Facility Employees Benefit Association. The contest was to guess the amount of the first day's take in sales from an annual Prison Art Show. One year, because he was tired of all the work it took to create a working guitar, he decided to paint his one-and-only painting, "Trio with Harmonica". The painting was won by a sergeant on the correctional staff, who has since passed away. The painting is in the possession of his son.
Got his nickname after winning a card game.
He was a stand in for Roy Rogers and often performed in bit parts in those films.

Playing the fiddle was as much a part of my life as breathing. I was knee-high to a stump and playing the fiddle, and my daddy played the fiddle and so did my granddad before him. So I came by it naturally, and later on I got it in my head to just flat quit schooling, the idea to be making money because being born poor and staying poor and being satisfied with it wasn't how I saw living out the rest of my natural life.

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