Willie Nelson (1933–)

Willie Nelson is one of the most beloved figures in American music. An outlaw-country star since the 1970s, he cemented his reputation on such albums as Red-Headed Stranger, Phases and Changes, and Stardust and became known for original compositions such as “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “On the Road Again,” and “Whiskey River.” Nelson is a native of Texas and has always been closely identified with that state, but he also has deep connections to Arkansas.

Willie Hugh Nelson was born in Abbott in Hill County, Texas, on April 29, 1933, to Ira Doyle Nelson and Myrle Marie Greenhaw Harvey Nelson. His parents were both Arkansas natives born in Searcy County in 1913. Willie Nelson has claimed Native American ancestry, saying his mother was “three-quarters Cherokee,” but the details are unclear. His mother and her family are reported as white in the available census data. Some Cherokee did reside in Searcy County in the early nineteenth century but were forced out in 1828. Nelson’s possibly offhand claims to Cherokee ancestry, nevertheless, have been repeated in biographies without verification. His mother’s sister, Sybil Greenhaw Young (1923–1999), claimed it was her mother, Bertha Greenhaw (Willie’s grandmother), who was three-quarters Cherokee. In the same interview, Young claimed that her grandmother (Willie’s great-grandmother) was “full-blooded Cherokee” and that her grandfather was “half Cherokee and half Irish.”

Nelson’s roots in Arkansas, however, are indisputable. His grandfather was Searcy County native William Alfred Nelson (1884–1940), who is referred to as Alfred in sources. Alfred worked as a blacksmith throughout his life, and in 1900, he married Nancy Elizabeth Smothers (1882–1979). She was another native of Arkansas, though where exactly she was born is unclear.

Nancy Nelson was the most important person in terms of her grandson Willie Nelson’s musical training. She obtained a degree in music through a Chicago School of Music correspondence program and gave lessons to children in Pindall (Searcy County). Nancy stayed with music her whole life; on her death certificate, she is listed as a music teacher. Nancy’s father was William Marion Smothers (1860–1942), a native of Marion County, Arkansas, who died in Pindall. Her mother, Mary Elizabeth Rose Smothers (1860–1895), was also from Marion County and is buried there.

Nelson’s grandfather, Alfred, was the son of parents born in Arkansas. Alfred’s father, Franklin Craig Nelson (1857–1934), was known as “Uncle Peck.” He settled near Pindall in 1882, and by 1897, he was farming eighty acres of land and had access to a creek that drained into the Buffalo River.

Nelson’s father, Ira, was the only child of Alfred and Nancy to live to adulthood, though he was young when he left Arkansas. Considered “tall and handsome” and a “free spirit,” he played guitar and banjo. On September 6, 1929, Ira married Myrle—also a teenager—in Newton County. They soon moved to Texas, settling in Abbott, a small town in Hill County roughly twenty miles north of Waco. Ira’s sister, Rosa, had moved to Hill County and influenced her brother’s decision to go there. Ira and Myrle hoped to find work as cotton pickers.

They arrived in central Texas shortly before the Great Depression hit. Abbott had only about 300 people, but Hill County was one of the top cotton-producing areas in the country at the time. Neither of Nelson’s parents, however, were interested in a life of back-breaking labor. The marriage was not a happy one, though the couple had two children together. Nelson’s older sister by two years, fellow musician Bobbie Lee Nelson, was born on January 1, 1931.

Myrle separated from Ira when Nelson was six months old, leaving Ira to raise their children. Ira was no more loyal to the family than his wife was, leaving their home to start a new life with another woman and her children. Willie was then raised by his Arkansas grandparents.

One Nelson biographer ascribed Myrle’s departure from the family as resulting from a “wild streak” supposedly inherent in her Cherokee ancestry. What is more likely is that she was a woman who had married and had children at a young age and was unprepared, regardless of her background, for the responsibility of raising children—not to mention doing so in a rural area during the worst economic period in American history.

What is clear is that Nelson’s mother did not like Texas. Myrle reportedly worked as a waitress, dancer, and card dealer in San Francisco, Oregon, and Washington State. In 1935, her divorce from Ira was made official. The next year, Ira married Lorraine Edna Moon. He found work as a mechanic in Fort Worth.

Nelson’s grandmother taught Bobbie to play piano and Willie to play guitar. “She and the rest of the family was talented,” Nelson wrote in his autobiography. “They could sing. All the Nelsons and Smothers[es] played guitars and French harp. All them Nelsons was musicians.” Nelson has said his sister was a much more formidable musician than he, though she never had the commercial success that he did.

Willie Nelson’s connection to Arkansas goes beyond his family ties. Toward the end of his first marriage (which ended in divorce in 1962), Nelson’s wife, Martha, caught him cheating on her while they were on a trip to Fort Smith (Sebastian County). Both had a bad drinking habit by then, and when Martha confronted Willie about his cheating, a fight broke out. Martha attacked Willie with a whiskey bottle, which landed her in jail, though police did not arrest Willie that night.

Willie Nelson’s father died on December 5, 1978, at the age of sixty-five from cancer in Austin, Texas. At the time of his death, Ira Nelson was cashing in on his son’s name, running Willie’s Pool Hall, where he performed as a bass player and singer in the band Willie’s Pool Hall Playboys. Nelson’s mother died in Washington State, where she had been living for years, on December 11, 1983. Nelson’s grandfather died in 1940 of pneumonia, but his grandmother, who nurtured his and his sister’s musical talents, lived until 1979. Both of his grandparents are buried in Vaughan Cemetery in Hill County.

Willie Nelson played with the Highwaymen country music supergroup in 1990 in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to benefit farmers suffering from recent flooding in Arkansas. With him on stage that night were fellow Highwaymen Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings. Among other performances, Nelson played the Outlaw Music Festival in Rogers (Benton County) in 2023. He has also made appearances at the Ozark Folk Center State Park.

For additional information:
“Funeral Set.” Fort Worth Star Telegram, December 7, 1978, p. 8F.

Nelson, Willie, and Bud Shrake. Willie: An Autobiography. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1988.

Nelson, Willie, and David Ritz. It’s a Long Story: My Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2015.

“Noted Singer’s Mother Dies.” Journal Gazette and Times Courier, December 14, 1983, p. 6B.

Patoski, Joe Nick. Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2015.

Thomson, Graeme. Willie Nelson: The Outlaw. London: Virgin Books, 2006.

Colin Edward Woodward
Richmond, Virginia