Curly Fox born 9 November 1910

Arnim LeRoy Fox (November 9, 1910 – November 10, 1995), better known as Curly (or Curley) Fox, was an American old-time and country fiddler, singer and country musician who got his nickname from his long curly hair. 

Scholars tend to divide country music fiddle-playing into two broadly geographical camps: the first, now dominant Texas style is characterised by long smooth bow strokes that allow for improvisational embellishment. The second, more traditional style emerged from the Appalachian foothills in the 19th century and with its saw-stroke bowing, is typically faster and more rhythmic. Fox was among its finest exponents and probably the most influential fiddler in country music history and one of its most popular entertainers of his time. 

Fox was born Arnim LeRoy Fox in Graysville, Tennessee, United States, as the son of a barber. He learned to play the fiddle with some help from his father and from James McCarroll, (a member of the Roane County Ramblers). Fox first played professionally on the traveling Indian Medicine Show with Chief White Owl when he was 13; later, he played with Claude Davis and the Carolina Tar Heels in Atlanta, Georgia. Fox founded the Tennessee Firecrackers in the 1930s, performing on WSB-AM in Atlanta. For a time, he worked for promoter Larry Sunbrock on his "fiddling contest" show. 

                                   

Sunbrock would travel around the country with his fiddlers and arrange "world championship fiddling contests" in towns along the way. Fox played with the Shelton Brothers on recordings they made for Decca Records between 1934 and 1936, in addition to recording a few of his own singles. His 1935 version of Septimus Winner's "Listen to the Mockingbird", cut for Decca, with Joe Attlesey on guitar, with its imitative trills and whoops, and despite an occasionally harsh tone, remains a classic of the genre. 

In 1937, Fox met singer Texas Ruby (Ruby Agnes Owens), sister of Tex Owens, while playing in Fort Worth, Texas. They married shortly thereafter in 1939, and began playing together professionally on the Grand Ole Opry, where they performed from 1937–1939 and 1944-1948. From 1940-1944, they became a regular feature on Boone County Jamboree over WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio. The couple was invited to be members of The Opry in the late 1930s. They occasionally recorded together, including a session for King Records in 1947. In 1948, Curly and Ruby moved to Houston, Texas, where they remained for over a decade, working in radio and television. They were amongst the most popular husband- and-wife teams in the business. 

In 1960, the pair returned to work on the Grand Ole Opry, but Ruby often fell ill and Fox frequently performed solo. He routinely stopped the show with his trick fiddling: numbers such as "Johnson's Old Gray Mule" and "Black Mountain Rag" proving ideal vehicles for his hillbilly pyrotechnics. He was also a good harmonica player. His harp specialty was novelty tunes such as train imitations and fox race type tunes. 

An album was recorded together for Starday Records in 1963, but 72 hours after the recording sessions, Ruby died in a mobile home fire. After her death, Fox played solo for several years, but eventually moved to Chicago to live with family. Though he ailed in his old age, he sporadically performed live; he returned to Graysville in the mid-1970s, performing with a local bluegrass outfit before retiring. 

Curly Fox died in November 1995, at the age of 85 and was buried in the Pleasant View Cemetery in Graysville, Tennessee. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, The Independent & Yesterday In Denton)

Texas Ruby born 4 June 1908

Ruby Agnes Owens (June 4, 1908 – March 29, 1963), professionally better known as Texas Ruby, was an American pioneering country music female vocalist and musician of the late 1930s through to the early 1960s. Her brother was famous as Tex Owens, the writer of Cattle Call.

She didn’t headline in Vegas or score any huge hit records during her too-short career, but she remains one of the most memorable country music stars of all time. Ably accompanied by husband Curly Fox’s fiddle, her deep singing voice and distinctive performing style helped make her special, but her personality was the crowning touch. She was sassy and tempestuous, a hard living and highly spirited force of nature. 

Ruby was born on a ranch in Wise County, Texas, near Decatur, United States. When she was three years old she started to sing, often together with her two brothers. Her career began when a radio station owner in Kansas City radio station heard her sing in Fort Worth, Texas. In early 1937, she made her debut recording for Decca Records. Later that year, she met fellow musician Curly Fox in Fort Worth. They were married in 1939. The couple was invited to be members of The Opry in the late 1930s. 

Ruby was dubbed "radio's original cowgirl". The husky voice star was something of a cross between Sophie Tucker (whom she was often compared to) and Dale Evans and with her husband, fiddler Curly Fox was an enormously popular radio and personal appearances star in the 1940s although she failed to have any hit records. Her best-known song, "Don't Let That Man Get You Down" predated Loretta Lynn's stand-up-to-your-man hits by twenty years.

                          

This sassy persona was adopted on most of Ruby's recordings, "Ain't You Sorry That You Lied" and "You've Been Cheating on Me", songs perhaps too trailblazing to have been record hits in that very conservative era of country music. Most of Texas Ruby's recordings were done for the King Records and Columbia Records labels. Her first sessions were in Dallas for Decca Records in February, 1937. 

Texas Ruby made her first breakthrough in the music industry working with country bandleader Zeke Clements but by the mid forties she and husband Fox had developed their own stage act and were much in demand, including a stint as regulars on the Grand Ole Opry from 1944 to 1948. The Foxes left the Opry and in late 1948 moved to Texas, where most of their concert dates were. The move seemed to push national stardom further away from the duo, who in the early 1960s moved first to Los Angeles (appearing on the Town Hall Party country music television series) and then back to Nashville in attempts to return to the limelight. 

Fox, widely considered one of country music's greatest fiddlers, worked the Opry more frequently as background instrumentalist than as a star. As he was appearing on the Opry on March 29, 1963, Ruby fell asleep smoking in their mobile home and was killed in the resulting fire, shortly after making a comeback album with Fox. "Shanty Street" was issued on a Starday label sampler posthumously. 

It was the most grim month in Opry history as Ruby was the fifth Grand Ole Opry star to die that month, following Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, and Jack Anglin. Fox was reinstated as an official Grand Ole Opry member shortly afterward but he retired by 1970. 

(Edited from Wikipeda, geezermusicclub & last.fm)