Gilbert Ray "Speck" Rhodes (July 16, 1915March 19, 2000) was an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

and entertainer. Speck Rhodes came from a musical family. He and three of his siblings, Slim, Dusty, and Bea, known as The Junior Arkansas Travelers played the RKO

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

theater circuit on the West Coast in the early 1930s. They later became known as The Log Cabin Mountaineers and had a daily radio show on KWOC in Poplar Bluff. Slim played the

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, Dusty played the

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

, Bea played the

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

, and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

, and Speck played the

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

and bass fiddle. While the band was at Poplar Bluff, Speck developed his comic character that served him for the rest of his career. From 1948 until 1975, the Rhodes brothers had a weekly television program called the Slim Rhodes Show that aired on WMCT Channel 5 in Memphis. Then, in 1960 Speck auditioned for a new television show called The Porter Wagoner Show that the Chattanooga Medicine Company was starting in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. Speck got the job, and because he and Porter both come from West Plains, they had a natural chemistry that resulted in an association lasting over 20 years. After the Porter Wagoner television show ended, Speck worked alone for a few years until retiring in September 1996. He died at his home in Nashville on March 19, 2000, at age 84. He and his wife Alice are buried at Spring Hill Cemetery in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

External links

Remembering Speck Rhodes, Clown Prince of Country Comedy
* 1915 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American singers Burials at Spring Hill Cemetery (Nashville, Tennessee) Country musicians from Missouri People from West Plains, Missouri Singers from Missouri {{US-comedian-stub