The “Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

Main MenuConcept Refinement The Author..Wayne JancikGolden Age Of The 50sGolden Age Of The 60s1970s and There After

STONEWALL JACKSON   

“WATERLOO“

(JOHN D LOUDERMILK, Marijohn Wilkin)

Columb1a 41393

No. 4    July 13. 1959

.

..

Stonewall Jackson was born in a railroad shack outside Tabor City, North Carolina, on November 6,

1932.  His daddy, who named him after his great-grandfather (the historic Confederate General

Thomas Jonathan ”Stonewall” Jackson) died when Stonie was but two.  Papa Jackson was a logging

train engineer who died of complications from a hernia, before Stonie was born.  Mama, half Seminole

Indian, married a violent man.  Conditions were rough, with money hard to come by and a stepdad

who would repeatedly beat him,  one time leaving him for dead.  Jackson played on an improvised,

hand-me-down string box until ’42 when he traded a tireless bike for a real guitar.  At 14, Stonie left

home to roam.  First joining the Army with falsified birth  certificate,  then the Navy,  where he was

stationed  0n the U.S.S. Kittyhawk, which was a  submarine  rescue ship.  With a rigged up sound

system, Stonie would play country tunes.

.n

From 1954 to 56, Stonie worked hard as a farmer and logger, saving up to go to Nashville and become

a country star.  Without any arrangements or recommendations, Stonewall drove his logging truck to

the doors of the Grand Ole Opry, where he somehow wrangled an audition with Judge George D. Hay,

the founder of the institution.  The somber judge signed him on the spot and Jackson made his first

appearance on the Opry that night, November l, 1956.  The chances of managing such a move without

a hit record, then as now, were next to nil.  Two years later, Stonewall would have that hit.

 /

Once he played the Grand Ole Opry, doors of opportunity opened, including those at Columbia

Records.  “Life Goes On,” his first single, charted top 10 on the C & W charts.  The follow-up,

“Waterloo.” was a monster crossover hit. the most momentous recording of his entire career.

Three more singles made Billboord’s Hot 100, and a few more charted big on the country listings.

 Near a half Century ago, the hits stopped, but not Stonewall.  ln 1991, Stonie issued privately his

autobiography, From the Bottom Up.

.

Things begin, things end.  “Every puppy has his day,” Stonewall sang. “Everyone must pay.”  How true,

how true.  And “Everyone must must meet his Waterloo.”