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July 19, 2020
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS Another week and the coronavirus is still active. We hope everyone is safe, our county seems to be doing well. We continue to be open and will continue to write the column though the news will be minimal. We will change our exhibit this week to show our collection from artists who have exhibited through the years. It should make a nice visit through memory lane. HISTORICAL MUSING One of the most talked about happenings in Lipscomb was local dances and one of the best known fiddlers was Frankie McWhorter. Frankie was born June 13, 1931 in Memphis, Texas. In 1946, at the age of 15, he helped Boyd rogers ship horses that Frankie had trained to New York. In 1947 he shipped other horses he had trained to Boston, Massachusetts, by boxcar. Frankie went to work for the JA Ranch at Palo Duro, Texas in 1948. He came to Lipscomb county in 1963 and worked for Roger Gray at the Barton Ranch. When the ranch sold to Malouf Abraham in 1984 he continued working for the Coopers until he retired in 2002. He had been a fiddle player for about as long as he had been a cowboy. He started his musical career in the early '50s with the Miller brothers, a western-swing band sponsored by a Wichita Falls furniture store. The Frankie "caught on" with bob wills and the Texas Playboys for a spell but went back to Memphis to "break Horses". A friend, spud Hawkins, brought him to Lipscomb in 1963, and it was the Lipscomb water that clinched the deal. He liked the taste. He played at the Naturally Yours Dance Platform on Saturday evenings until it closed. Frankie passed away on February 2, 2008. Gone but not forgotten. |
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