Tillman Ben Franks, Sr. (September 29, 1920 – October 26, 2006), was an American

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes 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 ...

and the manager for a number of

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

artists including

Johnny Horton John LaGale Horton (April 30, 1925 – November 5, 1960) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Initially performing traditional country, Horton later performed rockabilly songs. He is best known for a series of history-inspired narra ...

, David Houston,

Webb Pierce Michael Webb Pierce (August 8, 1921 – February 24, 1991) was an American honky-tonk vocalist, songwriter and guitarist of the 1950s, one of the most popular of the genre, charting more number one hits than any other country artist during the ...

, Claude King, and the Carlisles.

Background

Franks was born in Stamps in Lafayette County in southwestern

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the ...

, to George Watson Franks (1890-1967) and the former Pearl Galloway (1896-1983). When he was two years of age, Franks' family relocated to

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

in northwestern

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

, where they assumed residence in the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In his later years he lived in southwestern Shreveport near his long-term friend Claude King, known for the 1962 hit songs " Wolverton Mountain" and "The Burning of Atlanta", a ballad about the 1864 battle of Atlanta in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

. Franks served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, after which he married the former Virginia Helen Suber (1927-2016), a native of

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the clas ...

, Texas, and a daughter of Earl Clark Suber (1900-1954), who served with the military police in

, and the former Rose Lee Rich (1907-1937). Virginia was subsequently reared in two Shreveport

orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

ages and like her husband graduated from C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport. She became an artist with speciality in oil paintings, a

seamstress A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Not ...

, and sang with her husband of sixty years and their son, Tillman Franks, Jr. The Franks had two sons and two daughters.

Music career

After the war, Franks and Claude King formed the Rainbow Boys while working at an assortment of other jobs, mostly in automobile sales. On April 3, 1948, Franks played bass with the Bailes Brothers on the first night of the '' Louisiana Hayride'', broadcast on Shreveport

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

station

KWKH KWKH (1130 AM) is a sports radio station serving Shreveport, Louisiana. The 50-kilowatt station broadcasts at 1130 kHz. Formerly owned by Clear Channel Communications and Gap Central Broadcasting, it is now owned by Townsquare Media. Its st ...

. In 1955, as

's manager, he switched the budding singer from

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

. He was the sole writer of Horton's first No. 1 single, 1959's " When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)". He and Horton were co-composers of " Honky Tonk Man", Horton's 1956

hit record A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

, that

Dwight Yoakam Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and film director. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album ''Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.''. Yoakam had considerabl ...

also recorded as his first single. During 1960, Franks co-wrote with Horton the successful singles " Sink the Bismark" and " North to Alaska".The Legendary Tillman Franks
Franks was injured in the head and internally as well in the automobile accident on November 5, 1960, in Milano in Milam County in

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region con ...

, which resulted in the death of Johnny Horton and the eventual loss of a leg by a third musician, Tommy Tomlinson. Franks' contribution to

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

music has been recognized by his induction into the

Rockabilly Hall of Fame The Rockabilly Hall of Fame is an organization and website launched on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relating to the artists and personalities involved in rockabilly. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennesse ...

, the Louisiana Hall of Fame, and his induction in 2003 into the Northwest Louisiana Walk of Stars where his feet and hand impressions are in concrete beside other talents, such as

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst a ...

Kix Brooks Leon Eric Brooks III, better known by his stage name Kix Brooks (born May 12, 1955), is an American country music artist, actor, and film producer best known for being one half of the duo Brooks & Dunn and host of radio's '' American Country ...

, David Toms, and Franks' longtime friend Claude King. The "Walk of Stars" is located under the Shreveport side of Texas Street Bridge, officially known as the

Long–Allen Bridge (Shreveport) The Long–Allen Bridge is a truss bridge in Shreveport, Louisiana, named for Louisiana governors Huey Long and Oscar K. Allen. Opened in 1933, it carries US 79/ US 80 across the Red River. It is also known as the Texas Street Bridge. ...

that spans the Red River to Bossier City. Tillman Franks helped to coin the phrase "The Magic Circle," which he describes in his

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English p ...

as: "an area 50-miles in radius from downtown Shreveport from which many kinds of music evolved. I was lucky to have lived my life in The Magic Circle."

Legacy

On July 11, 1996, Shreveport observed "Tillman Franks Day", sponsored by KWKH. Franks died in the fall of 2006 at the age of eighty-six. His son, the Reverend Watson Franks, preached the funeral. The family is interred at Forest Park West Cemetery in Shreveport. In 2019,

KEEL The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in B ...

Radio recalled Franks as "a legend that should be remembered orall the contributions not only to Shreveport's musical history but to rock and country." Franks' out-of-print autobiography entitled ''Tillman Franks: I Was There When It Happened'' is still in demand by his remaining fans.

Notes

External links

Tillman Franks Web site
*

Franks at Allmusic.com The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

br>Frank Tillman at Hillbilly-Music.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Franks, Tillman 1920 births 2006 deaths American double-bassists Male double-bassists American country songwriters American male songwriters American talent agents People from Stamps, Arkansas Writers from Shreveport, Louisiana C. E. Byrd High School alumni Musicians from Shreveport, Louisiana Starday Records artists United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army soldiers 20th-century American musicians Songwriters from Louisiana Songwriters from Arkansas 20th-century double-bassists 20th-century American male musicians