Gentleman Jim Reeves

Born in Galloway, Texas in 1924 as James Travis Reeves, like lots of his contemporaries Jim was performing live shows on Radio by the time he was 9 years old. But Jim's first love was baseball and he was drafted as a pitcher for the St Louis Cardinals, however he injured his leg in 1947 and lucky for us this turned him back to music.

Moving to Louisiana in 1949 he soon landed a job with KWKH the home of the Louisiana Hayride but his job was announcer not singer. He had recorded a song called Mexican Joe which although locally produced became a hit and he was soon signed to sing on the Hayride.

By 1955 he was signed by RCA and was a regular on the Grand Ole Opry and in 1957 was given his own daily TV show on ABC, in those days Jim was a full blown honky tonk style singer but by the early 60's he dropped his vocal range and became known almost instantly as Gentleman Jim.

His record sales went through the roof. Some of his hits are 'I Love You Because' 'Four Walls, ' 'Hell Have To Go', Welcome to My World', Sadly in 1964 Jim Reeves was killed in a plane crash on his way to Nashville. Jim Reeves scored 30 hits after his death.

Jim and Mary Reeves were together for 17 years before he was killed in the plane crash.