Curly Fox

Country music's leading husband-and-wife duo throughout the 1940s and 1950s was Curly Fox paired with Texas Ruby. Among hillbilly fiddlers Fox stands as one of the most accomplished, whereas Ruby ranks among the earliest women vocalists to achieve major stardom.

Born Arnim LeRoy Fox in Graysville, Tennessee, the fiddler received his initial instruction from his barber father, assisted by James McCarroll of the Roane Country Ramblers. He launched his professional life performing with Chief White Owl's "Indian" medicine show before joining Claude Davis and the Carolina Tar Heels in Atlanta and forming the Tennessee Firecrackers. Between 1934 and 1936 he performed and recorded in New Orleans with the Shelton Brothers while also cutting three solo singles. At the 1937 Texas centennial celebration Fox encountered Texas Ruby, born Ruby Agnes Owens in Wise County, Texas. A genuine cowgirl and sibling of radio cowboy Tex Owens, she had already appeared multiple times on the Grand Ole Opry and on various stations alongside Zeke Clements and His Bronco Busters. The pair wed shortly afterward and performed on the Opry from 1937 to 1939 and again from 1944 to 1948, filling the intervening years with engagements in Cincinnati and at other prominent outlets.

Although they issued occasional recordings, Fox observed that Ruby's throaty contralto registered more effectively on radio than on disc. Her strongest sides appeared on King in 1947. Relocating to Houston in 1948, the couple spent the next decade presenting country music on local television. They rejoined the Grand Ole Opry roster in 1960, yet Ruby's declining health frequently left Fox performing unaccompanied. They still completed a Starday album in 1963, only for Ruby to perish soon afterward when fire engulfed their mobile home while her husband was onstage at the Opry. Fox sustained a solo career for several years before moving to Chicago to reside with one of his daughters. Despite ongoing health issues he produced further albums and made sporadic live appearances. In the mid-1970s he returned to his Tennessee hometown, collaborated with a local bluegrass group, and eventually retired to stay with an older sister.