Gene Wyatt born July 28, 1937

Gene Wyatt (July 28, 1937 - January 16, 1979) was an American country and rockabilly singer.

Preston Eugene "Gene" Wyatt was born in Lake Village, Arkansas, to Bertie Wyatt and Arby lee Wyatt. When he was one year old his parents moved to Marthaville, Louisiana. From his earliest childhood he showed signs of his innate talent, becoming a magnificent guitarist and singer, especially of country and Cajun music. He amazed everyone by playing in church and at local dances, so that soon the town became too small for him and when he came of age he decided to try his luck in the neighbouring city of Shreveport. There he began to play in clubs and married Joereitia Stanford, with whom he had two children.

                                   

Moving from country to rockabilly.  He recorded the good rockabilly "Lover boy" (1957) with James Burton on the modest Ebb label, although it went completely unnoticed. Also that year one of his first personal appearances was at the Louisiana Hayride. His next single "Pretiest Girl in the Dance" (1959) was released on the local label Lucky Seven, but wasn't until 1964 that he released "You bug me baby" on another modest Shreveport label, Aetna.

In 1966 Gene accepted the position as front man for David Houston. In addition to gaining knowledge, he also gained a lot of mileage. He toured with the Houston troupe throughout the United States, Canada, England and Germany. His highlight was a standing ovation at the London Palladium. After touring  he decided to try it on his own as an artist. He recorded "I stole the flowers from your garden" for Mercury in 1967.This was a most rewarding effort for it was Gene's first record to make the National Charts. After Mercury Gene fulfilled a long time desire to record for Stan Lewis, owner of Paula Records.

Gene's first record on Paula " I Just Ain't Got As Much As He's Got Going For Me," proved to be highly successful, giving Gene two in a row to reach the National Charts. He released another five singles including "Little Liza Jane" (1968), "As long as I live" (1969) and his version of the classic "Let the good times roll" (1974), but still stardom illuded him.

During his later days Gene suffered from a deep depression. A close friend Randy Floyd said that nobody wanted musical success any more than Gene. He felt he had gotten so close and it slipped away, and how humiliating it was to have success and the fall to where he was just working the strip for whatever he could make. It seems nobody recognized how serious Gene's depression was until he tragically died of a self inflicted gunshot wound on January 16, 1979. David Houston paid tribute and sang at Gene's funeral.

At the time of Gene's death he was married to Joreita Andrea Stanford and they had two children Kimberly Rachelle Wyatt and Christopher Loren Wyatt who are both now deceased. Joreita Stanford Wyatt also passed after his death. Gene has two grandchildren Angel Wyatt and Dakota Wyatt.

Well music lovers Gene is hardly if at all mentioned in the annuls of Rock'n'roll or Country, in fact the only information I could find was mainly on Facebook & Last.fm website. Although Gene never reached "star" status he was one of hundreds of aspiring singers who need at least some recognition for their contribution to the genre.