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Texas Day by Day

September 12, 1909


Country singer born in country town

On this day in 1909, country singer Kenneth Threadgill was born in Peniel, Texas. In 1933 he moved to Austin and began working at a service station; by December, he had bought the establishment and turned it into Threadgill's Tavern. After World War II the place became an important musical venue where eventually Janis Joplin, for instance, performed. Long a country music singer, Threadgill was quiet on the national scene until his first movie soundtrack and album in the early 1980s, when he and Willie Nelson appeared together and sang in the film Honeysuckle Rose. Some of his best-known songs were "Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine," "There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere," "T for Texas, T for Tennessee," and "It Is No Secret What God Can Do." Threadgill died in 1987. The tavern is now Threadgill's Restaurant.

Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
THREADGILL, JOHN KENNETH
NEELY, BILL
JOPLIN, JANIS LYN

Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
Early colony holds first election (1844)
First producing oil well in Texas comes in (1866)


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