Biography

Daughter of country music pioneer, Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith. Born February 20, 1916. Grand Ole Opry performer during the 1930s with her father’s band, the Dixieliners.

Interview Summary

1987 May 15
(1 hour, 20 minutes)
Lavonne Smith Brown, daughter of country music pioneer Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith, recalls her father’s career. Discussion includes her father’s fiddling style; her father as a performer; the chronology of her father’s career; her father as songwriter; legal disputes surrounding some of her father’s songs, including “Beautiful Brown Eyes”; her father’s last performances; and a discussion about several photographs of her father and several pieces of her father’s correspondence.