Art Wooten Remembered
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine
April 1988, Volume 22, Number 10
In the December 1986 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited, we ran an obituary of Art Wooten, who past in October of that year. Then, in April of 1988 we ran a story remembering Art Wooten. Here, we are first reprinted the short obituary, and then we will present James Lindsey’s article.
Art Wooten Obituary
Fiddler Art Wooten, 80, passed away October 6,1986 after a long illness, in Sparta, North Carolina. He was suffering from emphysema and had a heart condition which contributed to his death.
Art was the first fiddler with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1938 at Asheville, North Carolina. He was also an alumnus of both the Stanley Brothers and Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs bands of the late 1940s.
The North Carolina Folklore Society honored Art in 1985 with their Brown Hudson Award for his contribution to North Carolina’s cultural heritage.
Art is survived by two sons, his wife, his mother, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
James Lindsey Article:
On October 6, 1986, we lost one of our well-known old-time fiddlers. Art Wooten passed away in Sparta, North Carolina, at the age of 80.
Art was born to John and Nettie Wooten on February 4, 1906, in Sparta, and had one sister, Marie. He grew up and went to school in Alleghany County becoming interested in the fiddle at an early age and learning from local musicians around the country.
In 1929, Art met and married a young lady from Asheville, North Carolina, Alma White Meece. To this union were born 2 boys and 1 girl. David Wooten was born on December 3, 1932, and now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. His brother, Gerald, was born February 3, 1936, and lives in Johnson City, Tennessee, and their sister, Pat, was born on May, 1941 and passed away in November, 1974 in Columbus, Ohio.
Art came to the Galax Fiddler’s Convention in 1936 or ’37, and in the records of Herman Williams, “He was a nice looking young man who [won] just about everything.”
My first meeting with Art Wooten was in 1937 in Galax, Virginia, where he was sitting on the back of a flatbed truck performing with his one-man band: a guitar and banjo set in a box with pedals. It was rigged so that Art could play with one foot and chord with the other while he played the fiddle and sang. I remember he was singing “That Old White Mule Of Mine.” Later Art made another model of the one-man band powered by an electric motor.
Art joined Bill Monroe in 1939 and was with him when Monroe went to the Grand Ole Opry. He stayed with Bill until 1941 when Art went into the Navy where he stayed until 1945. After his discharge, Wooten resumed his musical career. He was on tour with the Stanley Brothers when his wife passed away in October, 1947. Art disappeared for a number of years and was thought by some to have died. When I next heard of him he was playing in and around the Baltimore area, and toured again with the Stanley Brothers in the early ‘50s.
Art was a carpenter by trade and was working on a construction job in Columbus, Ohio, when he met his 2nd wife, Minnie Rhodes, in 1957. Minnie was originally from Scott County, Virginia, and was working for the Ohio Farmer magazine at the time. They married and moved to New York and then to California where they stayed for about a year. From California they went to Texas for 2 years, and eventually moved to Jonesboro, Tennessee, where they stayed for 12 years. During all this moving around, Art continued playing with local bands.
Art had been having trouble with his health and someone told him if he moved to Florida it would help his condition, so once again he and Minnie moved. They didn’t stay long, however, as they weren’t happy in Florida, and in 1974 they came home to Sparta. Shortly after this, in 1975, Art recorded 2 albums of his own on the Homestead and Dominion labels. (Heritage Records of Galax,- Virginia, will soon be releasing a cassette tape #1323 featuring recordings of Art and his one-man band on Side 1, and recordings of live performances on Side 2.)
Art Wooten was a man who contributed much to the pioneer days of old- time and bluegrass music, and will long be remembered by old-time and bluegrass musicians and fans alike.Art Wooten was a man who contributed much to the pioneer days of old- time and bluegrass music, and will long be remembered by old-time and bluegrass musicians and fans alike.
