Once in a while I enjoy the chance to dig into Granny's closet, (imagine that you've walked into a life size file cabinet) which is filled with a lot of music memorabilia, and recently I was looking through a file of Springfield's KWTO radio artifacts that I helped her organize several years before she passed away. Hands down, Granny's two favorite regional gospel acts were the Hayden Family and the Goodwill Family, who were a part of the KWTO broadcast schedule every day.
Looking through a box of paperback hymn books, I found Granny's worn out copies of the Hayden's song book as well as the Goodwill Family. The Goodwill Family songbook caught my attention as it featured on the cover a nice group photo of the quartet from the late 1940s, featuring Aunt Martha, Speedy Haworth - her son, and Martha's brother Slim Wilson. Their fourth member in the photo was the one I knew the least about, Mr. George Rhodes.
This led me down another goose chase, all I wanted to know was whatever became of George Rhodes. All of a sudden, doing a few online searches, I wasn't getting anywhere. Years ago, Granny discussed with me what she recalled - which wasn't much, she just remembered him being a good singer and guitarist, and he was heard on KWTO frequently.
So, I went back to some of the KWTO items that I greatly treasure today. Back in the day, the station was so popular, they published a monthly magazine called "The Dial." Their listening audience covered southwest Missouri, southeastern Kansas, northeast Oklahoma, and northwest Arkansas. These booklets did features on their many performers and staff and always gave a complete broadcast schedule. I own a very small collection of these magazines, but lucked out when looking through the September 1948 issue; there was a two-page feature on the mystery guy that had me stumped—George Rhodes.
Ya'll are gonna love this, here goes! George was born in Ozark County on September 7, 1910, to George and Minnie Rhodes. He was the second of three children. When he was three, the family moved to a farm near Protem and would attend schooling there and help with farming and the family chores. George attended Forsyth High School. His love was sports, and he played the center position on the Forsyth basketball team.
In the summer of 1928, Rhodes attended vocational classes in Gainesville and after graduation accepted a teaching position at the little one-room school in Protem, the one he had attended as a boy. His teaching career was short lived; by 1930 he had relocated to an area near Oakland, Arizona, where he worked as a cow puncher on a large cattle ranch. It was there he met Alice Reeves, and they were married December 24, 1931. A Christmas wedding!
In 1932 the couple returned to Taney County and then back to Arizona for two years, moving to California in 1935 where George worked at a Chevrolet assembly plant. The factory closed at the beginning of World War II. It had been a great paying job and they had saved enough money to return home, where they bought 40 acres southeast of Springfield. Soon they were raising horses, had chickens, and a dairy cow operation.
Doing all this research I was puzzled about the beginnings of George's music career. Doing some more investigating, I found that he learned organ and piano when he was young, and while in California taught himself guitar and mandolin. Apparently he was good enough for radio. KWTO hired him in 1946. Soon he was heard often, featured on as many as five shows a week, on the air for a couple of hours a day. He also participated in the station's most popular broadcast, Korn's-A-Krackin.
The Goodwill Family had an opening and Rhodes was a member of their act from 1947 until they disbanded around 1960. They remained extremely popular with the KWTO audiences, and some of you will recall I have previously written about the careers of Slim Wilson and Speedy Haworth.
In the mid-1950s through 1961, Rhodes was a staff musician on the popular “Ozark Jubilee” TV series hosted by Red Foley. Choosing not to retire, George and Alice returned to Taney County to the area of Cedar Creek, and in the 1960s he ran for the public office of Circuit Court Clerk and won. He was serving his third term in office when he passed away at Skaggs Hospital in Branson on April 30, 1975. He was 64. He and Alice had a son Billy, who lived from 1939 to 1957.
George was laid to rest in Springfield at White Chapel Memorial Gardens. Alice lived to age 84, passing in Yellville, Arkansas, on December 7, 1998. Part of the reason I had difficulty finding some of George's information is because that's his middle name. His official name was Maynard George Rhodes.
I'm sure you're wondering; do I have anything on Aunt Martha? Yes, indeed I do; her career on KWTO went back to the 1930s. Next week I will get ya'll acquainted with her!
And by the way, if you ever see any vintage copies of KWTO's “The Dial” magazine out there, let me know, I still collect them!
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