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Arlie Vincent Mayfield, I (June 20, 1924 – September 11, 2008), known as Smokey Mayfield, was a ranch supervisor in the Texas Panhandle and a bluegrass musician. In the late 1940s, Mayfield and his brothers played warmup for Tennessee Ernie Ford, Maddox Brothers and Rose, Hank Snow, and other country singers. Mayfield was born to William Fletcher Mayfield (died 1952) and the former Penelope Drake (died 1937) in rural Dawn in Deaf Smith County southwest of Amarillo. In January 1931, he moved with his parents, three brothers, and two sisters to Dimmitt, the county seat of Castro County near Lubbock in West Texas, where he attended school, having left high school before graduation. He served in the United States Army in the European Theater of World War II and participated, at the age of 20, in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium in December 1944 – January 1945. 〔(Obituary of Smokey Mayfield ), ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'', September 14, 2008:〕 ==A family of musicians== The Mayfields possessed a strong musical background. All played musical instruments, beginning with the mandolin. Mayfield and two brothers, Thomas Edward "Edd" Mayfield (1926–1958) and Herbert E. Mayfield (1920–2008), went on the Bluegrass circuit and opened in Amarillo and Lubbock for Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Maddox Brothers and Rose as the Green Valley Boys, named for their ranch. Edd Mayfield left the family band and played the guitar with a thumbpick for a decade with Bill Monroe, considered the "father of Bluegrass". Edd Mayfield was described as "a handsome, tough-as-barbed-wire cowpuncher, who literally grew up on a ranch, who could ride hard, lasso accurately, and literally toss and tie up a bull … and had the wiry strength of a gymnast." While he was on tour with Monroe, Edd Mayfield died of leukemia in a hospital in Bluefield, West Virginia.〔Joe Carr and Allan Munde, “(The Mayfield Boys )”, ''Hansford County Reporter-Statesman'', undated〕 Herb Mayfield recalled that he and his brothers enjoyed music so much that they would race home after doing their ranch chores so that they could practice.〔 Eventually, Smokey chose the fiddle as his instrument. He was, however, too small to hold a full-sized instrument under his chin. So he anchored the fiddle between his chest and the wall of the barn. He continued to play in that position, with the fiddle on his chest rather than under his chin, into adulthood.〔 Smokey Mayfield resided in Hutchinson County near Spearman, which is the seat of Hansford County in the northern Panhandle. He and worked for a half century for the historic Turkey Track Ranch in Hutchinson County.〔 Herb Mayfield was born in Erick, Oklahoma, but lived in Dimmitt and graduated from Dimmitt High School. During World War II, he participated in troop lifts in Normandy and, like Smokey, the Battle of the Bulge. Thereafter, he was a welder for cattle feedlots in Dimmitt. He was for many years the president of the Dimmitt Rodeo Association and a member of the Panhandle Blue Grass Association. He died some three months prior to the passing of Smokey.〔(Obituary of Herbert E. Mayfield ), ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'', June 1, 2008〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Smokey Mayfield」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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