I was sad to learn of my friend Marilyn Tuttle’s passing. She died a couple nights ago at her home in San Fernando, California. I was notified by a family friend. She was ninety-nine years old.
Marilyn led an extraordinary life, in and out of show business. As a young girl in Hollywood, she began singing with Stan Kenton in 1944, then met Western singer Wesley Tuttle, one of the very first artists signed to Capitol Records, right after World War II. Wesley performed and recorded with the top tier of Western music in California at the time—Stuart Hamblen, the Sons of the Pioneers, Jimmy Wakely, Merle Travis, Cliffie Stone, and many others. With Wesley, Marilyn also recorded for Capitol Records, and later was one of the original cast members of the Town Hall Party radio and television show, with many of the top country music stars of the West Coast. (To the best of my knowledge, with Marilyn’s death, the only other living Town Hall Party cast member is Bobby Charles, a teenage singer at the time in the mid-1950s, not to be confused with the “See You Later, Alligator” Bobby Charles from Louisiana.)
During Wesley and Marilyn Tuttle’s time in show business, they rubbed elbows with just about anyone you can think of. Marilyn had stories about Merle Travis, Joe and Rose Lee Maphis, Lefty Frizzell, Speedy West, Joaquin Murphy, Bob Wills, Hank Penny, etc. etc. Marilyn was whip-smart and was quick to correct you if you were wrong: “No, that was ‘Alabama’ Jimmy Widener, you’re thinking of ‘Oklahoma’ Jimmie Widener. They both worked out here in the 1940s…” She seemed to know everyone and everything about that fertile 1940s and 1950s country music era in Los Angeles. Marilyn was a big help with the Merle Travis biography I wrote a few years ago. She and Wesley were married in Mexico at the same time that Merle married one of his wives, Tex Ann Nation. In fact, Wesley and Marilyn were present at all of Merle’s weddings (there were five in total) except for his first one back in Kentucky, to Mary Johnson.
Later in the 1950s, Wesley Tuttle abandoned traditional show business and became a preacher and gospel musician. Marilyn followed suit. The pair performed at evangelism and gospel music shows for decades, and recorded many religious albums. When Johnny Cash moved to the West Coast for several years in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Wesley Tuttle became Johnny Cash’s North Star for Jesus. Marilyn recalled many times when Cash, reeling from some new egregious offense he had just committed, would go find Wesley at their religious book store and recording studio in San Fernando to confess, talk things through, and seek forgiveness.
Wesley Tuttle died in 2003, and Marilyn remained active, especially in the Western music scene in California. (Western music, for those who are unfamiliar, is distinctly different from “country” music. Think about the campfire harmonies of the Sons of the Pioneers and Riders in the Sky.) Everybody knew Marilyn in the Western music community, and she would sing and harmonize and make everybody happy with her positive presence.
That’s mostly what I will remember about Marilyn—she was just always so extraordinarily cheerful and positive and fun. When I would visit her at the house in San Fernando where she and Wesley had lived since the 1950s, she would sit and look through old photo albums and tell funny stories and laugh and radiate joy. I think you can see that in the photos that I’m posting here.
In 2023, Keenan Wade and Grace Adele, known as the Farmer and Adele, visited Los Angeles, and I set up a meeting for them to meet Marilyn at the Autry Museum, facilitated by mutual pal Sage Guyton of the Lucky Stars. It was such a wonderful day. We toured the museum and then sat outside for a good long visit. Keenan and Grace and Marilyn began singing beautiful three-part Western harmonies, accompanied by “Oklahoma” Jimmie Widener’s original 1945 Epiphone Emperor archtop guitar. I’ll never forget that magical sound that happened when Marilyn added that third high-part harmony. It was a sound that time-traveled all of us back to the 1940s, when cowboys roamed the streets of Hollywood, making Western movies and joy-filled Western music. It was a great day, and Marilyn enjoyed herself immensely. I asked Keenan and Sage for their photos and videos after learning of Marilyn’s passing, and it brought me back to that day and how much fun it was. Those days won’t happen anymore, and I will miss my elderly friend with all that incredible history in her life.
Ninety-nine years is a damn good run, and we should all be grateful for the years that we got to spend around Marilyn. I’m so sorry to learn of her passing, and I wish I had gone to visit her recently, but I’m also just glad I got to know her as I did. She was a beautiful woman inside and out. I hope she’s reunited with Wesley today, and that there are beautiful Western harmonies in heaven. My condolences go out to all her family. Happy trails to you, Marilyn.
Check out more photos and video clips from the day at Deke’s original post.
