Mary Martin's life as a child, as Martin describes it in her autobiography My Heart Belongs, was secure and happy. She had close relationships with both her mother and father, as well as her siblings. Her autobiography details how the young actress had an instinctive ear for recreating musical sounds.

Martin's father, Preston Martin, was a lawyer and her mother, Juanita Presley, was a violin teacher. Although the doctors told Juanita that she would risk her life if she attempted to have another baby, she was determined to have a boy. Instead, she had Mary, who became quite a tomboy. Her birth was an event as all of the neighbors gathered around Juanita's bedroom window, waiting for the raising of a curtain to signal the baby’s arrival. • Mary Martin Books • Mary Martin Movies • Mary Martin Discography

After growing up in Oklahoma and serving in the United States military, Miller began his musical career as a Nashville songwriter in the late 1950s, penning such hits as "Billy Bayou" and "Home" for Jim Reeves and "Invitation to the Blues" for Ray Price. He later started a recording career and reached the peak of his fame in the late-1960s, but continued to record and tour into the 1990s, charting his final top 20 country hit "Old Friends" with Willie Nelson in 1982. Later in his life, he wrote the music and lyrics for the 1985 Tony-award winning Broadway musical Big River, in which he also acted.

Miller died from lung cancer in 1992, and was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame three years thereafter. His songs continued to be recorded by later artists, with covers of "Tall, Tall Trees" by Alan Jackson and "Husbands and Wives" by Brooks & Dunn, each reaching the #1 spot on country charts in the 1990s. • Roger Miller Books • Roger Miller Discography

In 27 months of combat action, Murphy became one of the most highly decorated United States soldiers of World War II. He received the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military's highest award for valor, along with 32 additional U.S. and foreign medals and citations, including five from France and one from Belgium.

Murphy's successful movie career included the extremely popular To Hell and Back (1955), which was based on his book of the same name (1949). He also starred in an impressive 39 Hollywood films. He died in a plane crash in 1971 and was interred, with full military honors, in Arlington National Cemetery. Audie Murphy's grave site is the second-most visited grave at Arlington, after that of President John F. Kennedy. • Audie Murphy Books • Audie Murphy Movies

Nelson was born and raised in Abbott, Texas, the son of Myrle Marie (nιe Greenhaw) and Ira Doyle Nelson, who was a mechanic and pool hall owner. His grandparents William Alfred Nelson and Nancy Elizabeth Smothers gave him mail-order music lessons starting at age six. He wrote his first song when he was seven and was playing in a local band at age nine. Willie played the guitar, while his sister Bobbie played the piano. He met Bud Fletcher, a fiddler, and two siblings joined his band, Bohemian Fiddlers, while Nelson was in high school. While he was in high school he took part in the Future Farmers of America organization. • Willie Nelson Books • Willie Nelson Movies & Video  • Willie Nelson Discography

Orbison was a natural baritone, but since 1961 writers have speculated that he had a three or four-octave range. The combination of Orbison's powerful, impassioned voice, and the complex musical arrangements in his songs led many in rock and roll to refer to his music as operatic, calling him the "Caruso of Rock". Performers as disparate as Elvis Presley and Bono stated his voice was, respectively, the greatest and most distinctive they had ever heard. While most men in rock and roll in the 1950s and 1960s portrayed a defiant masculinity, many of Orbison's songs instead conveyed a quiet, desperate vulnerability. He experienced tragedies in his life including the death of his first wife and his children on separate occasions. He was known for performing while standing still and solitary, wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses which lent an air of mystery to his persona. • Roy Orbison Books • Roy Orbison Video • Roy Orbison Discography

While Owens originally used fiddle and retained pedal steel guitar into the 1970s, his sound on records and onstage was always more stripped-down and elemental, incorporating elements of rock'n'roll. Owens met his longtime guitarist Don Rich while in the Seattle area. Rich can be heard harmonizing on all of Owens' hits until his death in a motorcycle accident in 1974. The loss of his best friend devastated Owens for years and abruptly halted his career until he performed with Dwight Yoakam in 1988.

Owens co-hosted Hee Haw with Roy Clark. Hee Haw, originally envisioned as country music's answer to Laugh-In, outlived that show and ran for 24 seasons. Owens was co-host from 1969 until he left the cast in 1986, convinced that the show's exposure had obscured his immense musical legacy. But following the death of Rich, a deep depression set in and lasted throughout the remaining years of his stint on Hee Haw. Owens is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. • Buck Owens Books • Buck Owens Discography

Ritter was born in Murvaul, Texas, the son of James Everett Ritter and Martha Elizabeth Matthews. He grew up on his family's farm in Panola County and attended grade school in Carthage. He attended South Park High School in Beaumont. After graduating with honors, he entered the University of Texas at Austin; he studied pre-law, majoring in government, political science and economics.

After starring in Utah Trail (1938), Ritter left financially-troubled Grand National. Between 1938 and 1945, he starred in around forty "singing cowboy" movies. He made four movies with actress Dorothy Fay at Monogram Pictures: Song of the Buckaroo (1938), Sundown on the Prairie (1939), Rollin' Westward (1939) and Rainbow Over the Range (1940).

Ritter then moved to Universal Pictures and teamed with Johnny Mack Brown for films such as The Lone Star Trail (1943), Raiders of San Joaquin (1943), Cheyenne Roundup (1943) and The Old Chisholm Trail (1942). He was the also the star of the film in Arizona Trail (1943), Marshal of Gunsmoke (1944) and Oklahoma Raiders (1944).

When Universal developed financial difficulties, Ritter moved to Producers Releasing Corporation as "Texas Ranger Tex Haines" for eight features between 1944 and 1945. Ritter did not return to acting until 1950 playing mostly supporting roles or himself. • Tex Ritter Books • Tex Ritter Movies • Tex Ritter Discography

Torn was born Elmore Rual Torn, Jr. in Temple, Texas, the son of Thelma Mary (nιe Spacek) and Elmore Rual Torn, an agriculturalist and economist. Being given the name "Rip" is a family tradition of men in the Torn family for several generations. It was given to him by his father, who was also called Rip; although as a young child and teenager he was referred to as "Skippy." He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1952. Torn introduced his cousin, the Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek, to the entertainment business and she was able to enroll in Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and then the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York. • Rip Torn Books • Rip Torn Movies

Tubb was born on a cotton farm near Crisp, Texas (now a ghost town in Ellis County, Texas). His father was a sharecropper, so Tubb spent his youth working on farms throughout the state. He was inspired by Jimmie Rodgers and spent his spare time learning to sing, yodel, and play the guitar. At age 19, he took a job as a singer on a San Antonio radio station. The pay was low, so Tubb also dug ditches for the Works Progress Administration and then clerked at a drug store. In 1939 he moved to San Angelo, Texas and was hired to do a 15 minute afternoon live show on radio station KGKL-AM. He drove a beer delivery truck in order to support himself during this time, and during World War II he wrote and recorded a song titled "Beautiful San Angelo." • Ernest Tubb Books • Ernest Tubb Discography