Doie Hensley Owens was born June 15, 1892 to Curckley Schley Owens (1869 – 1958) and Susan Frances Owens (1873 – 1968). Doie was the oldest of thirteen children. Doie and his brother Charles Wesley Owens were the only boys. The Owens family were sharecropping farmers in Texas and later in Oklahoma. Doie was born while they were living in Killeen, Bell County, Texas. Doie was one of three siblings who went on to enjoy careers in the music business. Doie became known as Tex Owens, his brother Charles or Chuck was a singer/songwriter and their sister Ruby had a long career as a country singer.
Since Tex was a nickname it is not surprising that there might be another country artist that used the same stage name. Herschel B. Owens (1922 – 1976) also was active in country music for many years and likewise performed as Tex Owens. Biographical sketches sometimes confuse the two and may insert facts from Herschel Owens’ life into discussions of Doie’s life.
Doie Hensley “Tex” Owens got his first taste of musical performance as a teenager as a member of Cowdell’s Wagon Show, which appears to have been a traveling minstrel show that performed for a number of years in West Texas and the Panhandle. He married the former Maude Jewell Neal in the summer of 1916. The couple had two daughters, Laura Lee and Dolpha Jane. To support the family, he worked in the oilfield, a deputy sheriff, on ranches and other odd jobs before being drawn back to music.
He hosted, cohosted and performed for about eleven years in radio programs, including one called Brush Creek Follies on station KMBC in Kansas City. It was common at the time for the radio broadcast schedule to appear in newspapers where stations might have coverage. At least one of his shows was nationally broadcast. In these various productions, Tex appeared with his group, the Original Texas Rangers, and was billed as Radio’s Original Texas Ranger. His daughters also appeared with him from time to time.
Around 1935, he wrote what would become his most familiar song, “Cattle Call,” a singing and yodeling tune that was recorded and popularized by Eddy Arnold and later recorded by as many as sixty-four other singers. It has also been used in over a dozen films. There are a couple of accounts of how he came to write the song. The prevailing one is that Tex said that he happened to be waiting to begin a radio program when it began to snow. He thought of how it might be trying to call a cattle herd out on the range as cowboys tried to gather them together before a snow storm and that he wrote the song, all four verses, in about thirty minutes.
Tex had several other engagements in radio, including the Boone County Jamboree in Ohio and others in Oklahoma and California. One local radio columnist in Omaha, Nebraska wrote of Tex, “Every Studio has one – a performer that goes on the air and clicks at once. I refer to Tex Owens, the Dallas Crystals Texas Ranger. A half hour after his first broadcast customers were trying to buy the product he promotes. Not bad, Tex. They tell me Will Rogers fell for your line, too.” (Ned Bailey’s “KFAB Notes” column in the Omaha Morning Bee-News, June 10, 1933.)
Tex’s resume also states that he appeared as a cowboy in several motion pictures, but apparently they were all uncredited roles. He was working on the 1950 John Wayne feature film “Red River” when the horse he was riding fell on him, breaking his back. He never fully recovered, but was able to resume his career as a musician and songwriter.
Over the years, Tex recorded for Decca Records and did a great deal of touring. It is not difficult to find advertisements for his personal appearances in local newspapers across the United States. A typical news item promoted him as appearing at a local venue and might also add that he was on his way to another appearance when he left the area. Tex finally retired around 1960 to his home in Camp Creek, near Franklin, Texas. He was a member of the Baptist Church. Tex continued to compose songs, many of which were religious. He died in on September 9, 1962 of an apparent heart attack. The photo below is from the August 9, 1962 issue of the Drexel Star, Drexel, Missouri taken about a month before he passed away. Tex and Maude are on the right.
Tex was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971.
As noted above, his brother Charles, or Chuck Owen was also a singer/songwriter. Their sister Ruby took the stage name Texas Ruby. She often performed with her husband, known as Curly Fox, who was a fiddle player. Ruby had been born on a farm near Decatur while the family was living there. Ruby and Curly had met while both were performing in the Grand Ole Opry in the late 1930s. The couple had two children and continued to work in the country music business until Ruby’s health declined. They were living in Nashville in 1963 when Ruby was killed in the fire of their house trailer. Curly went on to play country and bluegrass events until his retirement in 1975 after which he returned to live in Tennessee.
Laura Lee Owens was the daughter of Tex and Maude Owens. She was married several times, lastly to Dickie McBride. Laura Lee was also active in country music and is known for having been the first female to sing with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. She sang in Wills’ group for about five years and had a long career in country music. She also appeared in films. Laura Lee was inducted into the Western Swing Hall of Fame in California in the 1980s. She succumbed to cancer in 1989. Laura Lee was inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame later that year.
Maude survived Tex for about thirty-six years. Both Tex and Maude are buried in Franklin Cemetery, Robertson County, Texas. Ruby is also buried there. Her husband Curly Fox survived her about thirty-four years and is buried at Pleasant View Cemetery in Graysville, Tennessee. Dickie McBride passed in 1971. Both he and Laura Lee are buried in Franklin Cemetery.
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