Frank Proffitt; Nathan Hick's son-in-law

Frank Proffitt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Frank Noah Proffitt
Born June 1, 1913, Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, USA
Origin Beech Mountain, North Carolina
Died November 24, 1965(1965-11-24) (aged 52)
Genres Folk
Occupations farmer, cultural guardian, infrequent songwriter
Instruments banjo, appalachian dulcimer, guitar
Years active 1930s – 1960s
Labels Folkways Records, Folk Legacy

Frank Proffitt (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965) was an Appalachian old time banjoist and performer at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival.[1] He was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the banjo. He recorded the ballad "Tom Dooley", learned from his aunt Nancy Prather. Prather learned the song from her mother Edy Adeline (Pardue) Proffitt, who had known both Dula (locally pronounced "Dooley") and Laura Foster. Frank Warner, a folksong collector and a good friend of Frank Proffitt, shared the song with Alan Lomax, who included it in his book, "Folksong U.S.A."

Frank was born in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee and was raised in the Reese area of Watauga County, North Carolina where he worked in a variety of jobs and lived on a farm with his wife and six children. He grew tobacco, worked as a carpenter and in a spark plug factory.[2] He was known for his carpentry skill, Proffitt's fretless banjos and dulcimers were homemade.[2]

In 1937, Frank Proffitt met Frank Warner. Warner was searching out a dulcimer builder and thus began a 30 year friendship and song swapping. The Kingston Trio learned "Tom Dooley" from a recording Frank Warner made of the ballad that he learned from Proffitt, and they were eventually required by court judgement to acknowledge their debt to Proffitt and pay him royalties for the use of the song.[citation needed]

Discography
Frank Proffitt of Reece NC, Folk Legacy[3]
Frank Proffitt Memorial Album, Folk Legacy [4]
Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs, Folkways Records[5]
High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina, Rounder Records

External links
Photo of a banjo signed by Frank Proffitt

References

1.^ Frank Profitt Bio Folk Legacy. Retrieved May 5, 2008
2.^ a b Folk Legacy, Frank Proffitt bio Folk Legacy, Retrieved May 5, 2008
3.^ Frank Proffitt of Reese, NC CD-1 :American Folk Music, Music CD, Traditional Folk Music, Folklore, Sea Shanties, Folk Hymns, Folk Song, Folk Ballads Folk Legacy
4.^ Frank Proffitt - Memorial Album :American Folk Music, Music CD, Traditional Folk Music, Folklore, Sea Shanties, Folk Hymns, Folk Song, Folk Ballads Folk Legacy
5.^ Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs, Folkways Records, FW02360 1962 Retrieved on May 6, 2008
Frank Proffitt on NME
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Frank Noah Proffitt, 1913, Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, USA, d. 24 November 1965. Proffitt was a tobacco farmer, part-time carpenter, singer, guitarist, banjo player, dulcimer player and song collector. He is mainly remembered for ‘Tom Dooley’ made popular by the Kingston Trio and Frank Warner. This song appears onFrank Proffitt Of Reese, North Carolina, and was ‘collected’ by Frank Warner from Proffitt in 1938. It was only one of over a hundred songs that the Warners collected from Proffitt. During lean times on the farm, he worked in a spark plug factory, in Toledo, Ohio, and even on road construction. He also made and sold mountain dulcimers and fretless banjos. Proffitt’s acknowledged importance lies in his collection of the traditional material of America, in particular North Carolina. Many of the songs were picked up from his father, Wiley Proffitt, and his aunt Nancy Prather. Many were sung while working in the fields, and Frank absorbed all that he heard. His first public appearance was at the First Annual Folk Festival in Chicago. This had been brought about by the publicity that had accompanied the success of the Kingston Trio’s recording of ‘Tom Dooley’. Frank Proffitt Of Reese, North Carolina, was recorded at his home during the winter of 1961 by Sandy Paton. Considering his importance, it is surprising that Proffitt contributed only 11 songs to the Frank C. Brown Collection Of North Carolina Folklore. He died on Thanksgiving Day, 1965. In addition to his own recordings for Folk Legacy, Proffitt also contributed a number of tracks, in particular ‘Cumberland Gap’ and ‘Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down’, to a compilation album, High Atmosphere - Ballads And Tunes From Virginia And North Carolina (1974).

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1. NOAH FRANK 'PROFFITT'7 PROFFIT (WILLIAM WILEY 'PROFFITT'6, JOHN WESLEY5, JACKSON A.4, JOHN3, JOHN2, SYLVESTER1) was born 01 June 1913 in Johnson County, Tennessee (Source: (1) 1920 Watauga County, North Carolina Census., (2) Watauga County, North Carolina Death Certificate.), and died 24 Nov 1965 in Vilas, Watagua County, North Carolina (Source: Watauga County, North Carolina Death Records.). He married BESSIE MAE HICKS 20 Apr 1932 in Johnson County, Tennessee (Source: Johnson County, Tennessee Marriage Records.), daughter of NATHAN HICKS and CORENA HICKS. She was born 15 May 1914 in Watagua County, North Carolina (Source: (1) Jerrold Kenneth Proffitt., (2) Avery County, North Carolina Death Certificate.), and died 16 Oct 1997 in Banner Elk, Avery County, North Carolina (Source: (1) Jerrold Kenneth Proffitt., (2) Avery County, North Carolina Death Certificate.).

Notes for NOAH FRANK 'PROFFITT' PROFFIT:

Frank learned to play the banjo and the older members taught him the old song's handed down from generation to generation. Frank and Ann Warner collected over 120 songs from Frank. One of the songs, "Tom Dooley", was sang by the Kingston Trio and their single release recording sold over 2 1/2 million copies and was best seller of the year.

Frank's family moved to Beaver Dam, Watauga County, North Carolina when he was about two years old.

Frank Proffitt

b. 1913 / Bloomary, TN

d. November 24, 1965 / Vilas, NC

Author / Songwriter

FRANK PROFFITT: Singer, guitarist, banjoist, instrument maker. Born Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, 1913; died Vilas, North Carolina, November 24, 1965.

The saga of the song "Tom Dooley" was a strange one - on record and in' fact. It became a hit for the Kingston Trio in the late/1950s, but not until several years later did the man who was responsible for the song emerge from the shadows of obscurity as one of the great folk artists of the century.

The song had been collected from Frank Proffitt in the late 1930s by folklorists Anne and Frank Warner. For thirty years they had played it and mentioned its origin in Frank's home in the Tennessee-North Carolina hills. But no one noticed the name Proffitt until it was almost too late for him to gain any rewards from the song.

The Proffitt family moved to the Cracker Neck section of the eastern Tennessee mountains - the Warners wrote in Sing Out! (Oct.- Nov. 1963, p. 7) - just after the Civil War from Wilkes County, North Carolina. When Frank was a boy, his family moved to Reese, North Carolina, a few miles below the Tennessee border. There Wiley Proffitt earned a living as a farmer, cooper, and tinker.

Young Frank grew up in an atmosphere of folk music. His father, his Aunt Nancy Prather, and his Uncle Noah often sang old songs of the hills. Frank's father also made banjos and passed his skills along to his son. The Warners quote some of Frank's reminiscences of this:

"As a boy I recall going along with Dad to the woods to get the timber for banjo-making. He selected a tree by its appearance and by sounding... hitting a tree with a hammer or axe broadsided to tell by the sound if it's straight grained . . . . When the strings were put on and the pegs turned and musical notes began to fill the cabin, I looked upon my father as the greatest man on earth for creating such a wonderful thing out of a piece of wood, a greasy skin, and some strings."

Young Frank helped his father run the farm. He managed to finish sixth grade in the rural school before he had to devote all his hours to the farm. He continued his deep interest in music and spent most of his few free hours singing or listening to songs. As he grew older, he took more and more part in local gatherings, trading songs with others from the region and playing the banjo. In 1922, he got his first store-bought instrument when he gathered enough premiums from selling goods of the Lee Manufacturing Company to trade them for a guitar.

In 1932, he married Bessie Hicks, daughter of another musical family of the area, and moved to his own farm in Pick Britches Valley. The years passed much as they had before. The Proffitts raised a family of their own, and farmed, and Frank played and sang whenever he could. In 1938, the Warners met Frank's in-laws while passing through the hill country. Nathan Hicks, in turn, introduced them to Frank. In the next few years, the Warners returned to record 120 of Frank's folk songs. One of these was a ballad about a tragedy involving two local people, Tom Dula and Laurie Foster. Other songs bore such titles as "Dan Doo" and "Moonshine."

The Warners' work was interrupted by World War II, but the relationship was resumed afterwards. The major change came after "Tom Dooley" became the nation's number one song. It began in 1960, with a story about Proffitt by J. C. Brown in The Carolina Farmer. The resulting furor resulted in an invitation for Frank to appear at the University of Chicago's first Folk Festival. Frank was one of the hits of the show. Soon after, Folkways issued the first LP of Frank Proffitt. Other invitations poured in, resulting in his first visit to New York and an appearance at the Country Dance Society's Folk Music Camp near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

In 1962, the second Proffitt album, "Trifling Woman," was released on the Folk Legacy label. In the mid-1960s, Frank reaped well merited applause from audiences at concerts and festivals in many parts of the country. He was a featured performer at the 1964 and '65 Newport Folk Festivals.

Though his name had become famous in many parts of the world besides the U.S., Frank continued to spend most of his time on his beloved farm in North Carolina. In late 1965, after driving his wife 115 miles to a hospital in Charlotte for a needed foot operation, he returned home in seeming good health. He finished his dinner, lay down on his bed, and died in his sleep on November 24. His meaning to folk music lovers throughout the world was reflected in the many Frank Proffitt memorial concerts given during 1966.

-- Bio from Stambler and Landon, "Encyclopedia of Folk, Country and Western Music." New York: St. Martin's Press, 1969.

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More About NOAH FRANK 'PROFFITT' PROFFIT:

Burial: 28 Nov 1965, Millsaps Family Cemetery, Vilas, Watauga County, North Carolina (Source: Watauga County, North Carolina Death Record.)

Occupation: Farmer & Singer

Residence: Todd, Watauga County, North Carolina

More About BESSIE MAE HICKS:

Burial: 19 Oct 1997, Millsaps Family Cemetery, Vilas, Watauga County, North Carolina (Source: Avery County, North Carolina Death Certificate.)

Fact 1: Died at Cannon Memorial Hospital, Banner Elk, NC

Residence: Meat Camp Road, Watauga County, North Carolina

More About NOAH PROFFIT and BESSIE HICKS:

Marriage: 20 Apr 1932, Johnson County, Tennessee (Source: Johnson County, Tennessee Marriage Records.)