He was in the alley outside the Ryman, waiting for Estelle to bring the Cadillac around, and they were trying to get him to sign the petition. "One time, some of the 'Opry' performers were trying to get him to sign a petition About how the people on the 'Opry' weren't getting paid enough. "He was uniquely 'String,' " said Don Light, who booked Akeman on college and festival dates. He called his instrument "the five," as in "the five-string banjo." Asked whether he had medical insurance, he'd say, "Naw, just me and the five." "He was so happy that he was making a living playing a banjo and that he got to live on a farm, doing what he wanted." "String flashed money, mostly to his friends," says old-time musician Lester Armistead, who was Stringbean Akeman's friend and neighbor. He made extra money hunting wild ginseng and selling it to the Chinese.Īnd, as many people knew, he kept wads of $100 bills in his overalls. He'd slaughter, smoke and eat pigs but wouldn't touch anything from a cow. He borrowed a Jackie Gleason expression - "How sweet it is!" - and used it as his signature line, explaining that if it was good enough for Gleason, it was good enough for him, and also that his fans didn't know who Gleason was. He used apple vinegar as shaving lotion and rubbing alcohol as deodorant. (Little Jimmy Dickens gave him his first such pair of pants.) He sang songs such as "I'm the Man That Rode the Mule Around the World" and "How Many Biscuits Can You Eat," while wearing baggy shirts tucked into tiny pants, belted just above the knees. To his fans, Stringbean Akeman seemed pleasant, gangly and peculiar, which is how his friends thought of him as well. He learned to play banjo as a teenager and joined "Opry" star Bill Monroe's band in 1943, impressing Monroe with his baseball skills as much as with his banjo: Monroe's band members were required to play hardball as his "Blue Grass Boys" drummed up interest on tour by playing games against locals. Stringbean Akeman was born on the Fourth of July 1916 in the green hills of Jackson County, Ky.
The reason for it all was in the bib of his overallsĪt least that's what the Brown boys would tell" "On Ridgetop, Tennessee in 1973, the Brown boys killed Stringbean and Estelle Stringbean Akeman never learned to drive, and Estelle Akeman ferried him to tour dates, the "Opry" and syndicated television show "Hee Haw" in the couple's one extravagance: Each year, Stringbean Akeman bought a brand new Cadillac, always paying in cash. The tiny cabin was room enough for the Akemans, who were comfortable in each other's presence and who shared enthusiasms for hunting, fishing and country life. The killings were cause for grieving, anger and paranoia and marked the end of country music's innocent era. 11, 1973, Stringbean Akeman, 57, and his wife, Estelle, 59, were found murdered on their Goodlettsville property, out in the country. But it hasn't been that way in Middle Tennessee for 40 years.
"When you live out in the country, everybody is your neighbor, on this one thing you can rely," he sang.Īnd perhaps you could. He told a joke about informing a curious ticket-holder that he was part of the show and the woman responding, "Lord help the other part." Then he said, "Let's have a sing-along!"Īnd they did, with Stringbean's voice at the forefront. Give a hand to Stringbean!"Īnd they did, and the scarecrow-looking banjo player shuffled his way into view of the Ryman crowd. "Stringbean, like Grandpa Jones, since the 'Hee Haw' shows is playing a lot of colleges," Ritter said, "he's playing all over the country, and he doesn't work for his old price anymore. 10, 1973, Tex Ritter stood on the Ryman Auditorium stage and brought David "Stringbean" Akeman to the "Grand Ole Opry."