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Gordon Stoker plays the
organ, lovingly restored, that he played when he was eight
years old during services at Gleason's Tumbling Creek
Baptist Church. By the age of 12, he was playing piano for
the Clement Trio and at 15 was pianist for the John Daniel
Quartet of Grand Ole Opry fame. In 1950 he became a member
of the Jordanaires, a move that eventually propelled him
into the Country Music and Gospel Music Halls of Fame.
Gordon
Stoker, whose Tater-town roots stretch all the way to
Nashville, still keeps cherished keepsakes of his youth.
His mother's old guitar rests alongside his brother's
banjo in a corner of a room brimming with mementos of days
gone by; along one wall is the beautiful, richly grained,
solid walnut organ he played - beginning when he was just
eight years old - at Tumbling Creek Baptist Church outside
Gleason. The old Kimball organ was made for a time when
electricity was scarce, at best, with thick pedestals on
either side of its frame providing a base from which coal
oil lamps once offered dim light during church meetings
held after the light of day had passed into the shadows.
These were the days when good weather brought fine
entertainment to rural demesnes in the form of country and
gospel singings that were held at locations not too far
from the beaten path. In McKenzie, the Snead Grove Picnic
attracted throngs of merry-makers as did the weekly
singing conventions that were held every first Sunday in
Paris, every second Sunday in McKenzie at the high school
gym, and successive Sundays at Huntingdon and Dresden.
"We used to have a lot of singing conventions. My mother
and dad were hung on them; we'd go to Fulton, Martin..."
recalls Gordon, or Hugh Gordon, as he was known among
singing circles as the young and talented piano player for
the Clement Trio.
Gordon credits his parents - mom Willie and dad Ambus
(known locally as H.A. Stoker) - with his early immersion
in music. Music was an important part of the Stoker family
in which each member of the family played a musical
instrument and was provided with lessons outside their
home.
Gordon had been born on August 3, 1924 "right on the main
drag in Gleason" in the telephone office building where
his family made their home, as his mother was one of two
operators for the telephone system and his father was the
repairman.
"My mother was the night time operator," Gordon says, a
grin spreading across his face as he recalls, "You
couldn't make a phone call after 9:00 p.m. or before 6:00
a.m."
Incoming phone calls were completed by means of a
"switchboard" that connected the lines between caller and
receiver. Calls made after the hour deemed unacceptably
late for phone calls were either unanswered or met with
the announcement, "It's after 9:00 p.m."
"Maybe if it was somebody she knew, she would go ahead and
connect them," admits Gordon, whose collection of
memorabilia also includes an old crank telephone once
worked on by his father.
As a pianist, Gordon's talent was challenged by the skills
of another piano player who frequented the local singing
conventions: "She added stuff to her music," Gordon says
in tones that still reflect the awe that inspired him to
go home and duplicate her efforts, practicing tirelessly
beyond the limitations of his education.
His endeavors paid off for the trio whose fame continued
to grow.
"We had a hot trio, believe me," recalls Gordon,
declaring, "We'd stop the show anywhere we'd go!"
Vocalists for the trio were the Clement children: Gloria,
age 8; Rachel, 12, and Fred, Jr., who was 10 years old. At
age 12, on the piano, Gordon was red hot - so hot that a
performance at the Snead Grove Picnic garnered the
attention of Mr. John Daniel of the immensely popular John
Daniel Quartet, just one of many country acts of the late
1930's that were brought to the picnic from the WSM radio
station and the Grand Ole Opry.
He grins as he recalls his first step toward fame: "John
Daniel, manager of the group, heard me play, and said,
'Son, how old are you?'"
After confessing he was only 12 years old, he recalls, Mr.
Daniel vowed, "I want to bring you to Nashville; I'm going
to make a star out of you!"
Hugh Gordon was already a star in West Tennessee, where
early morning radio shows on WTJS in Jackson made "The
Clement Trio" a household name. He chuckles as he relates
a phone call he received, about two years ago, from a
"lady from McKenzie" who was passing through Nashville and
called to ask if he was the same Hugh Gordon Stoker who
once played for the Clement Trio.
She fondly recalled - some 60 years later - the memorable
way Mr. Clement introduced his role with the group: "He's
not a banker, he's not a broker, he's just the world's
greatest piano player, Hugh Gordon Stoker!"
"Lot of people who knew me years ago still call me Hugh
Gordon," he admits, counting Minnie Pearl among that group
after becoming one of the Grand Ole Opry's youngest
performers at the age of 15 when, true to his word, John
Daniel called a week after his graduation from high school
and invited him to join the quartet.
Clement Trio fans continued to enjoy Gordon's skills
through the 50,000 watt-powerful WSM radio station that
reached every morning into homes as far away from
Nashville as Carroll and Weakley counties. Hugh Gordon was
a great success, but World War II was raging, and Uncle
Sam was calling his children from every walk of life to
partake in the battle against evil that threatened the
very freedom Gordon so amply enjoyed. In 1943, he was
drafted into the United States Air Force.
Dismayed by the interruption of his career, Gordon was
nevertheless aware of his great fortune when a typing test
- in which he excelled - earned him the job of teletype
operator. Stationed in Brisbane and Ipswich in Australia,
he worked in the airport's control towers, using teletype
to monitor air traffic.
"I had a good deal; not very many men in the early '40's
knew how to type, so I was really lucky, believe me,"
relates Gordon, obviously respectful of fellow servicemen
whose job descriptions landed them more certainly in
harm's way.
After three years in the military, Gordon moved to
Oklahoma near family members, enrolling at Oklahoma
Baptist University where, for two years, he studied
psychology, later changing his focus to music and voice.
"I just wasn't pleased not being back in Nashville,"
Gordon says decidedly. The Daniel Quartet was still going
strong on WLAC, another 50,000 watt station. In the latter
part of 1948, he decided to return home to Nashville,
where he continued his studies at Peabody College, though
his education was aborted short of achieving a degree.
Gordon picked up where he had left off with the Daniel
Quartet until, about a year later, opportunity knocked
when the Jordanaires came to town. In a move that would
propel him into fame unforeseeable at the time, Gordon
auditioned successfully to become the new pianist for the
quartet. In the next few years Gordon would meet his wife
as well as a young man in a pink shirt who would change
the course of his life forever: Elvis Presley.
Next week: more of Gordon Stoker's extraordinary journey
to stardom. click here |
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