Wayland Padgett, a Texas native who first moved to Arkansas in 1953, spent most of his workdays as a heavy equipment operator. But he also loved music and spent many nights performing in clubs and with other musicians.
"When I was a little kid, I had a guitar and mandolin," recalls Padgett, now 85 and living in the community of Opal near Beebe. When Padgett was 12, his father moved the family to Bakersfield, Calif.
When Padgett was 18 in the late 1940s, he had a small band that played at picnics and parties and later performed with those who became a part of what became known as the Bakersfield sound.
"Bill Woods came to one of those picnics, and he hired me to come play with his group and work for him at the Blackboard Cafe," Padgett says of the disc jockey, country musician and talent scout who is credited as being one of the founders of the legendary Bakersfield sound.
"The area had a lot of transient workers who came to work with the crops," Padgett explains of the Dust Bowl migrants who traveled to California from Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and other parts of the South.
The Bakersfield sound developed in local honky-tonks in response to the slick, orchestra-laden music coming out of Nashville in the late 1950s. During his time as a musician, Padgett performed with several who went on to become stars -- Buck Owens, Ferlin Husky and even a young Waylon Jennings, who would sit in with the house band as a teen. Padgett then went on the road with John Grimes, also known as Billy "Hillbilly" Barton.
Playing electric guitar and singing, Padgett says he also filled in with Hank Williams' band for a few months shortly before Williams' death, when the ill and troubled musician returned to the Louisiana Hayride show for the final time in December 1952 after having been fired from the Grand Ole Opry because of his excessive drinking.
During that time, other musicians in Williams' band included Jerry Rivers on fiddle and Don Helms on steel guitar.
Padgett says he doesn't have many memories of interacting with Williams, explaining, "You didn't bother a sick man."
Williams was pronounced dead on New Year's Day 1953 while traveling by car to a show in Canton, Ohio. Later that year, Padgett settled in Little Rock after performing some shows here. Performing in local clubs at night, he worked during the day as a salesman.
In April 1954, Padgett married Mary Lou Donaho. Padgett went from salesman to heavy equipment operator.
"All those slopes you see along Interstate 30 in North Little Rock, I created those grades," he says, adding with a chuckle: "I left my mark on that town."
Padgett's wife died of cancer in 1999. In 2004, he returned to Bakersfield for the fourth reunion of those who had been a part of helping to form the Bakersfield sound.
"I had a big time and saw people I hadn't seen in years," he says.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
SundayMonday on 01/11/2015