| Four Hundred EightyFifth in the Famous People (FP) Series - Cindy Walker |
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It's not very often that one of the FP Series of Famous People is actually at the gravesite for that person. We're humbled to place this 2-stage mystery cache beginning at the gravesite for Cindy Walker. The posted coordinates lead you to the entrance of the Mexia City Cemetery. Drive around and find Cindy's beautiful gravesite to determine the final coordinates as described below.
Cindy Walker was born on July 20, 1918 on her grandparents' farm near Mart, Texas. As a teenager, inspired by newspaper accounts of the dust-storms on the American prairie-lands in the mid-1930s, Cindy Walker wrote the song, "Dusty Skies" (later recorded by Bob Wills and his band).
In 1940 Walker, aged 22, accompanied her parents on a business trip to Los Angeles, California. As they were driving down Sunset Boulevard she asked her father to stop the car near the Bing Crosby Enterprises building. Cindy Walker later recalled: "I had decided that if I ever got to Hollywood, I was going to try to show Bing Crosby a song I had written for him called 'Lone Star Trail'". Her father said "You're crazy, girl", but nonetheless stopped the car. Cindy went inside the building to pitch her song and emerged shortly afterwards to ask her mother to play the piano for her. Lone Star Trail was recorded and became a top-ten hit for Bing Crosby.
In that same year she would appear as a singer in the Gene Autry Western Ride Tenderfoot Ride. Walker successfully pitched her songs to Bob Wills and began to regularly contribute compositions for recordings and the movies that Wills made in the 1940s.
The collaboration was extremely fruitful: Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys eventually recorded over 50 of Cindy Walker’s songs, including "Cherokee Maiden" (1941), "Dusty Skies" (1941), "Miss Molly" (1942), "Sugar Moon" (co-written with Bob Wills; 1947) and "Bubbles in My Beer" (1948). Bob Wills and his band performed Walker’s first top-ten country hit, “You're From Texas” (1944).
The list of famous performers who have recorded her songs goes on and on. Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, Gene Autry, Jim Reeves, Roy Orbison, Dean Martin, Sonny James, Mickey Gilley, Ricky Scaggs, etc. In March 2006 Willie Nelson released a CD album featuring thirteen of Walker's well-known songs. The album title is You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker.
She returned to Mexia, Texas in 1954, living in a modest three-bedroom house with her widowed mother, Oree.
It has been estimated that more than 500 of Walker’s songs have been recorded and that her songs made the top-forty charts (country or pop) more than 400 times. In September 1997 Walker was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. During her acceptance speech, Walker recited some verse she had written for the occasion:
In the 1980s, my mother bought me a dress for a BMI affair and she said “when they put you in the Hall of Fame, that's the dress I want you to wear.” And I said “Oh Mama, the Hall of Fame? Why that will never be.” And the years went by, but my mother's words remained in my memory. And I know tonight she'd be happy, though she's gone now to her rest. But I think of all that she did for me, and tonight I'm wearing this dress.
Her speech was followed by a standing ovation and Walker left the stage in tears after softly blowing a kiss.
Walker died at the Parkview Regional Hospital in Mexia, Texas on March 23, 2006, aged 87 years. Walker's family had a custom-designed sculpture created for her gravestone to honor the songwriter and her work. The memorial sculpture is a large pink-granite guitar (in her signature color).
To find the bison tube at the final stage, count the number of musical notes surrounding her name on the sculpture. Place that number into the following set of coordinates:
N31 41.(X)(X-6)(X+3) W096 28.8(X-1)(X+3)
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GPSr Accuracy 7.8' @ Final |
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