Cecil Allen Null (April 26, 1927 – August 26, 2001) was an American

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

. He began writing songs and singing publicly while serving in the Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After leaving the service, he performed with various groups on

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

s in

Bristol, Virginia Bristol is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 17,219. It is the Twin cities (geographical proxi ...

. He wrote the songs " I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know" and " I Found Out More Than You Ever Knew", which became 1953 hits for The Davis Sisters and

Betty Cody Betty Cody (born Rita Francis Coté; August 17, 1921 – July 1, 2014) was a Canadian-born country music singer. Her notable singles include the 1952 RCA releases "Tom Tom Yodel" and " I Found Out More Than You Ever Knew", and "Please Throw Away ...

, respectively. On December 5, 1953, both songs were listed in the top ten of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart. Null became an expert at playing and designing

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of t ...

s, and ultimately served as a consultant for a manufacturer of the instrument.

Biography

Cecil Null was born in East War, West Virginia. Following his death from cancer August 26, 2001, he was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in

Bristol, Tennessee Bristol is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 27,147 at the 2020 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The boundary be ...

Songs

*" I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know" (1953) *" I Found Out More Than You Ever Knew" (1953) *"Close Your Eyes (And I'll Be There)" *"Love Isn't Love (Until You Give it Away)" (Cecil Null & E. C. Chance) *"Mother Maybelle" 1964. *"She's Hungry Again" Recorded by Bill Philips (1970)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Null, Cecil 1927 births 2001 deaths Songwriters from West Virginia American autoharp players People from War, West Virginia 20th-century American songwriters