Johnny Horton

Inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Mentioned alongside Hank Williams (who also was married to Billie Jean Jones at the time of his death) as the two friends whom Tex Ritter meets in his 1961 country song "I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven.".

In 1960 he recorded "North to Alaska" for the motion picture of the same name (North to Alaska (1960)) starring John Wayne and Stewart Granger. At this point in his career he decided to add acting to his accomplishments and planned on beginning a movie career, but this was not to be.

Best known for "saga songs", such as "The Battle of New Orleans" and "When it's Springtime in Alaska (It's 40 Below)" (1959), and "Sink the Bismarck" and "North to Alaska" (1960).

According to his manager, Tillman B. Franks, the reason Johnny wanted to get back to Shreveport as soon as possible after the November 4 show at the Skyline Club was that Saturday, November 5, was the opening of duck season in Louisiana. Johnny wanted to be up early that morning. Claude King (famous for recording "Wolverton Mountain") and his brother Perry had set up camp at a place called Hall's Brake, near Ajax, LA, on Friday evening and were awaiting Johnny's arrival to go duck hunting with them. Franks also disputes the story that Johnny was scheduled to meet with Ward Bond, the star of Wagon Train (1957), on the afternoon of November 5 to discuss an appearance on the TV series, calling it "hype". As it turned out, Bond himself died that afternoon of a heart attack after attending a football game.

His first hit, "Honky Tonk Man", came in 1956 and was soon followed by "When It's Springtime in Alaska", "The Battle of New Orleans", "Johnny Reb" and "Sink the Bismarck".

He became a regular on the radio show "Louisiana Hayride" in 1955 and soon after made an appearance on "Grand Ole Opry".

In 1953 he married the widow of Hank Williams, and she took an interest in furthering his career.

In 1951 he made his first recording.

Johnny Horton was born in Los Angeles, but at an early age he moved with his sharecropping parents to Tyler, Texas, where he grew up. Fishing was an early interest in life and he traveled to Alaska to seek employment in this capacity, but after returning to Texas he took up singing. His singing career began in 1950 in Pasadena, California, on radio station KXLA. He later became a regular on "Hometown Jamboree" with Cliffie Stone, on which he was billed as "The Singing Fisherman".