Redd Stewart born 27 May 1923

Henry Ellis Stewart (May 27, 1923 – August 4, 2003), better known as Redd Stewart, was an American country music songwriter and recording artist who co-wrote "Tennessee Waltz" with Pee Wee King in 1948.

Pee Wee & Redd

He was born the son of musical parents in Ashland City, Tennessee. Redd's family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, while he was still young. He learned to play the banjo, piano, fiddle and guitar as a child. All six of his brothers and sisters also became musicians. He dropped out of school after the seventh grade to perform in local bands. At age 14, he wrote his first commercial song, an ad jingle for a Louisville Ford automobile dealership. He also formed his own band at that time, the Kentucky Wildcats. He legally changed his name to Redd because of his russet-coloured hair.

In 1939, Redd Stewart became a member of Pee Wee King's band, the Golden West Cowboys, and joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. World War II. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Redd was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to the South Pacific. While stationed there with the rank of sergeant, Redd wrote "A Soldier's Last Letter," which Ernest Tubb worked on and recorded in 1944, making it a No. 1 hit staying at the top for four weeks out of a seven month stay on the Country charts and crossing over to the Pop chart Top 20. 

                                 

When Redd returned to Pee Wee's Golden West Cowboys at the end of WW II, he became the band's vocalist, replacing Eddy Arnold who had gone solo. Most of the band's biggest hits were sung by Stewart. In 1946 he married Frances Jean Grimes. Stewart and King left the Opry and moved to Louisville in 1947. From there, they became pioneers in country music TV, starring in both regional and national programs.

When Stuart and King became a song writing team in the 1950s their first major success, "Bonaparte's Retreat," was Kay Starr's launch-pad to stardom They provided material to Eddy Arnold, Cowboy Copas and other country stars of the day. Their "Tennessee Waltz" became a pop smash for Patti Page in 1951 (reportedly selling more than 6 million copies)and was also covered by Roy Acuff, the Louvin Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and many others. It was also named a state song of Tennessee in 1965. "Slow Poke" was # 1 on both the country and pop charts for King & the Golden West Cowboys and was covered by Hawkshaw Hawkins. King and Stewart's romantic ballad "You Belong to Me," co-written with Chilton Price, topped the pop charts when recorded by Jo Stafford in 1952 and became a major doo-wop hit when revived by the Duprees a decade later.

Redd appeared in several movies with Pee Wee King, including Gold Mine in the Sky (1938), Ridin' the Outlaw Trail (1951) and The Rough, Tough West (1952), the last two starring Charles Starrett as the Durango Kid. In 1961, Redd and King appeared in the movie, Hoedown. In 1950–51, Stewart signed with King Records as a solo vocalist, though none of his singles were successful. Stewart also wrote songs that would be made famous by other artists. He provided Jim Reeves with "That's a Sad Affair", (Reeves also recorded "You Belong to Me") and Moon Mullican with "Downstream" and "When Love Dies Where Does it Go" in the mid-1950s. "Tennessee Waltz"  In 1971 he married Darlene Iona Collins and in 1972, he was inducted as a charter member into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. During his lifetime, Redd Stewart estimated that he had written more than 400 songs.

On August 2, 2003, Stewart died at 80 at Baptist Hospital East in Louisville, from complications of injuries due to a fall at his home in Louisville, in the early 1990s. n 2004, "Tennessee Waltz" was awarded BMI's 3,000,000 Airplay Award. (equivalent to 17.1 years of continuous playing). In 2004, he was inducted into Country Legends Hall of Fame and the Traditional Country Music Hall of Fame; and in 2005, Tennessee Waltz Parkway opened in his birthplace, Ashland City.

(Edited from Wikipedia, Nashville Songwriters Foundation & IMDb)