Gene Autry

He was born Orvon Grover Autry on September 29, 1907, near Tioga in Grayson County in north Texas.

Gene's grandfather was a Methodist preacher and his parents were named Delbert and Einora. 

His parents moved in the 1920s to Ravia in Johnston County in southern Oklahoma. Gene worked on his father's ranch there while at school. 

Autry was educated at Ravia (Oklahoma) High School. After high school, Gene Autry worked as a telegrapher for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad in Oklahoma and performed as a singer and a guitarist at local dances.

Autry was discovered singing in a telegraph office in Oklahoma by humorist Will Rogers. Rogers told him that he had a pretty good voice, and suggested that he should sing professionally. Autry followed Rogers' advice and became "The Singing Cowboy." 

When Gene Autry went to Hollywood in 1934, he couldn't act, he couldn't ride, he couldn't rope, and he couldn't shoot. But that didn't prevent him from becoming the screen's most popular cowboy star within just a few years.

Gene Autry in 1942

He made his movie debut in 1934 in Ken Maynard's In Old Santa Fe and starred in a 13-part serial the following year for Mascot Pictures, The Phantom Empire. The next year Autry signed a contract with Republic Pictures and began making westerns.

Autry's best known song, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," was created in 1939, in Chicago, for the Montgomery Ward department stores for a Christmas promotion. The lyrics were written as a poem by Robert May, but weren't set to music until 1947. Gene Autry recorded the hit song in 1949.

He owned a chain of radio and television stations throughout the western United States, including KMPC and KTLA in Los Angeles and KSFO in San Francisco. His other business interests included the Gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs, and several other properties.

He ranked for many years on the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans.

Gene Autry owned the Los Angeles Angels American League baseball club from 1961 to 1997. (They subsequently were renamed the California Angels when the team was relocated to Anaheim in 1966.) When he sold part of his interest to Disney in 1997, they became the Anaheim Angels.

Sadly, Autry never got to see his beloved Angels win the World Series. The team even retired Gene's number "26".

Autry was Vice President of The American League until his death in 1998.

Autry died of lymphoma in Studio City, Los Angeles, on October 2, 1998, three days after his 91st birthday. 

Autry is the only entertainer to have been honored in all five categories by the Hollywood Walk of Fame, having been awarded stars for his performances in films, music recording, radio, television, and live theater.

Here is some trivia on Gene Autry's songs