At a donation ceremony
on August 12th, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in
Nashville paid tribute to 1997 Country Music Hall of Fame
inductee, the late songwriter Cindy Walker.
Museum Director, Kyle
Young, announced that when Walker died on March 23, 2006,
she bequeathed the writer's share of her 500-song catalogue
to the museum. The bequest included files and notebooks
related to the songs, sheet music, photographs and business
documents. In one of her files, Museum curators found
Walker's farewell note to her songs - "Goodbye my darlings,"
she wrote. "You have been so good to me. You have made me
rich and famous. I love you, you are the reason I am, and
you are in the Hall of Fame. I will miss you. Goodbye, your
girl, Cindy Walker."
Accompanied by images
of Walker at various stages of her career, Kyle Young
recounted her life from her youth in Waco, Texas, to her
arrival and early professional career in Hollywood, and from
her return to Texas and eventual involvement in the
Nashville music scene, to her death in 2003.
The celebration
concluded with a musical salute to Cindy Walker presented by
Nashville's fine western swing unit, the Time Jumpers.
Among her huge
catalogue of songs were “Distant Drums” and “Anna Marie”
recorded by Jim Reeves, “Dream Baby” recorded by Roy
Orbison, “Cherokee Maiden” and “Bubbles In My Beer” by Bob
Wills, “The Gold Rush Is Over” recorded by Hank Snow, “Blue
Canadian Rockies”, “I Don’t Care” and so many more.
The Country Music Hall
of Fame has already collected more than half a million
dollars on two years’ worth of Walker’s share of royalties.
