Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American folk singer and actor of stage, screen, radio and television.
He began as an itinerant singer and banjoist, and launched his own radio show The Wayfaring Stranger, which popularised traditional folk-songs. In 1942, he appeared in Irving Berlin's This Is the Army, and then became a major star of CBS radio.
In the 1960s he successfully crossed over into country music, recording hits such as "A Little Bitty Tear" and "Funny Way of Laughing." A popular film actor through the late 1940s and 1950s, Ives's best-known roles in that medium included parts in So Dear to My Heart and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, as well as Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Ives was a lifelong supporter of the Boy Scouts of America.
Life and career
Early life
Ives was born near Hunt City, an unincorporated town in Jasper County, Illinois near Newton, Illinois, to Levi "Frank" Ives (1880–1947) and Cordelia "Dellie" (née White) (1882–1954). He had six siblings: Audry, Artie, Clarence, Argola, Lillburn, and Norma. His father was first a farmer and then a contractor for the county and others. One day Ives was singing in the garden with his mother, and his uncle overheard them. He invited his nephew to sing at the old soldiers' reunion in Hunt City. The boy performed a rendition of the folk ballad "Barbara Allen" and impressed both his uncle and the audience.
