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Texas Ruby | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ruby Agnes Owens |
| Born | (1908-05-04)May 4, 1908 Wise County, Texas, nearDecatur, U.S. |
| Origin | Wise County, Texas, United States |
| Died | March 29, 1963(1963-03-29) (aged 54) |
| Genres | Country music |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar,vocals |
| Years active | 1937–1963 |
Ruby Agnes Owens (June 4, 1908 – March 29, 1963),[1] professionally better known asTexas Ruby, was an American pioneeringcountry music female vocalist and musician of the late 1930s through to the early 1960s. Her brother was famous asTex Owens, the writer ofCattle Call.
Ruby was born on a ranch inWise County, Texas, nearDecatur, United States. When she was three years old she started to sing, often together with her two brothers. Her career began when a radio station owner inKansas City radio station heard her sing inFort Worth, Texas. In early 1937, she made her debut recording forDecca Records. Later that year, she met fellow musicianCurly Fox in Fort Worth. They were married in 1939. The couple was invited to be members of The Opry in the late 1930s.[2]
Ruby was dubbed "radio's original cowgirl". The husky voice star was something of a cross betweenSophie Tucker (whom she was often compared to) andDale Evans and with her husband, fiddlerCurly Fox was an enormously popular radio and personal appearances star in the 1940s although she failed to have any hit records. Her best-known song, "Don't Let That Man Get You Down" predatedLoretta Lynn's stand-up-to-your-man hits by twenty years. This sassy persona was adopted on most of Ruby's recordings, "Ain't You Sorry That You Lied" and "You've Been Cheating on Me", songs perhaps too trailblazing to have been record hits in that very conservative era of country music. Most of Texas Ruby's recordings were done for theKing Records andColumbia Records labels. Her first sessions were in Dallas forDecca Records in February, 1937.
Texas Ruby made her first breakthrough in the music industry working with country bandleaderZeke Clements but by the mid forties she and husband Fox had developed their own stage act and were much in demand, including a stint as regulars on theGrand Ole Opry from 1944 to 1948. The Foxes left the Opry and in late 1948 moved to Texas, where most of their concert dates were. The move seemed to push national stardom further away from the duo, who in the early 1960s moved first to Los Angeles (appearing on theTown Hall Party country music television series) and then back to Nashville in attempts to return to the limelight. Fox, widely considered one of country music's greatest fiddlers, worked the Opry more frequently as background instrumentalist than as a star.
On March 29, 1963, while Fox was appearing on the Opry, a fire broke out in the couple's home and Ruby was killed. It was a grim month in Opry history, as Ruby was the fifth Grand Ole Opry star to die that month, followingPatsy Cline,Hawkshaw Hawkins,Cowboy Copas, andJack Anglin. Fox was reinstated as an official Grand Ole Opry member shortly afterward but he retired by 1970.
Ruby was the sister ofTex Owens, who composedEddy Arnold's hit "The Cattle Call."
