Nashville steel guitarist Bobbe Seymour issues a twice-weekly email newsletter. In today's mailing, he had the following to say about George Lindsey:
"Here in Hendersonville, we have many stars that live here and have lived here for many years, most of them are good friends with everyone in town like they are with myself. Hendersonville seems to be the old retirement ground for Nashville and the area. I feel this primarily because of the lake, fishing and swimming and being connected to the Mississippi River via the Cumberland River. However, I don’t know many people that navigate the Mississippi, but I know many that use Old Hickory Lake for recreation. We just lost another one of our permanent members that I’m sure many of you knew. He is comedian George “Goober” Lindsey. He enjoyed hanging around the Hee-Haw set, the Grand Ole Opry and did extensive touring. I remember meeting him on one of the Hee-Haw episodes when I was lucky enough to work them. I enjoyed being around him very much. He seemed to really care about other people’s feelings. I remember right after the breakup of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, he came into a club I was playing and said, “Hey look Seymour, George and Tammy are back together.” I said, “Yeah, but the wrong George.” He said, “With his luck, it was probably the wrong Tammy too.” After being around Goober on many shows, I realized that he genuinely a good, friendly guy and not just a squirrel like many country comedians are. I talked to him quite a bit about the Andy Griffith Show and he would bow his head like he really cared. I had the feeling that he was very close to everyone on that show. I look at George Lindsay as a country comedian in much the same light as Gordy Tapp and George Gobel. Most of these guys were very nice people and very considerate of others, most seeming like they had an inferiority complex. None were a bit over-rated about themselves. George was always asking me to teach him to play guitar. I told him I felt he could do much better than having me teach him. I said, “Maybe if you cut off a couple of fingers on your left hand, I’ll go ahead and teach you.” I told him steel guitar would be a much easier instrument for him to learn to play. I said this to him jokingly, but he replied very sternly, “Let me know when I start.” He said, “I don’t have to pick it up and blow on it, do I? I said, “Not unless you’re going to be in a marching band with it.” A few things that Goober appeared in were M.A.S.H., Gunsmoke, Herbie The Love Bug, CHIPS, Cannonball Run II, The Rifleman, The Twilight Zone before he landed the part of Goober Pyle on the Andy Griffith Show in 1964 and was the voice for the Miss USA Pageant for several years. In 1971 he recorded an album on Capitol Records called Goober Sings. He was a member of the Hee-Haw staff for twenty years. Being born in Fairfield, Alabama December 17, 1928 to parents George Lindsey and Alice Smith-Lindsey, his mother was disabled and spent most of her life in a wheelchair while his father struggled to find work. He was the couples only child and was primarily raised by his grand-parents at his Aunt Ethel’s gas station. The family wore felt hats to keep grease and oil from dripping into their hair so it wasn’t just a prop later in life. There are so many more things that we could say about him, however just remember, he was a hardcore country music and steel guitar fan and a credit to our little town here and we miss him. Remember these things that I’m writing to you friends and neighbors are not just facts from offline, but are personally from myself and others here in Hendersonville. We all loved this guy and we all know where he is today. He was a very close friend of every country music star that I know and he loved the sidemen and the musicians." _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
