Vernon “Tim” Spencer

1908–1974

The Start of a Musical Career * The Sons of the Pioneers * Life After the Sons of the Pioneers
Songwriting

NOTE: Much of the content for this biography comes from Ken Griffis’ book “Hear My Song: The Story of the Celebrated Sons of the Pioneers” and is used with permission of the copyright holders. It is supplemented here with information from research by Elizabeth McDonald.

The mining community of Webb City, Missouri, was the birthplace of Vernon Harold “Tim” Spencer, born to Edgar Ephraim and Laura Alice Spencer, on July 13, 1908. The Spencer family was large, with Lily, Ray, Forbes, Leo, Glenn, Beaunice, Osceola, Vernon, Kenneth, Deane, and Eva. Tim used to say, "Father didn't have to build fences, he just had to stake out boys!" To supplement his income as a mining engineer, Edgar Spencer played his fiddle at dances and social events. For a time he was associated with the Webb City Symphony, and whenever possible Tim would attend the events, finding music much to his liking. In the Webb City Methodist Church, Tim made his musical “debut” at the early age of 3 and soon joined his brothers in singing at church socials and civic events. Brother Glenn played the piano and violin and had a fine singing voice. It was during these early years that Tim discovered the enjoyment of entertaining.

(Photos courtesy of Suzette Spencer Marshall)

When Spencer was about 5, his father moved the family to New Mexico, settling near Springer, where they homesteaded a section of land in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Life in early New Mexico was a new experience for young Spencer, finding the open, flat prairie land such a change from his birthplace. Few neighbors came to call because they were few, indeed. Conditions were primitive: people living in shacks and dugouts. In New Mexico, Spencer began his schooling, attending the Newton schoolhouse in Colfax County near Springer. At the end of six months, which was the requirement for homesteading, the family returned to Webb City, where his father worked for Eagle-Picher Lead, a mining company, for a short while before once again returning to their homestead. On their second stay in New Mexico, his father took a position as engineer for the Phelps Dodge Corporation in the coal mining city of Dawson.

From the years spent in New Mexico, Spencer acquired an enduring affection for that pioneer country. His love and admiration of the grandeur of this wild and lonesome land is felt in some of his compositions, written years later. As young Spencer rode the back trails with his father, visions arose of bygone days, which one can feel in the haunting refrain of his song “Silent Trails.” 

“Silent trails.
Do the cowboys ride again,
Are the scouts ahead a-guidin’,
Are the redskins somewhere hidin’,
Are their spirits still a-ridin’,
Silent trails.”

Leaving the older boys to prove-up on the property, the family settled in the small mining community of Picher, Oklahoma. (Picher was a boomtown of its day; a wild, a wide-open town with gambling, killings, robberies and prostitution. When Tim returned to the town once in the 1940s, he took a gun with him because he remembered just how bad it was.) While attending school there, Spencer took the lead in the class operetta “The Gypsy Rover.” With 17 songs to remember and working with a cast of more than 100, Tim launched his “musical career.”

When he was 13, and without the approval of his father, Spencer bought a banjo ukulele on credit. The family had more pressing needs for money, and his father insisted he return the instrument. Feeling his father’s attitude unreasonable, Spencer left home, ending up at the famed Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas, where he worked as a helper in the restaurant. Serving coffee at the counter a few days later, he looked up to see the smiling face of his father, who had come looking for him. His father asked if he was ready to come back home. Homesick and glad to see his father, Spencer said, “Let’s go.”

Completing his schooling, Spencer found work in the lead and zinc mines around Picher. Not long after he began his job, an accident occurred that could have only been a blessing in disguise. An ore car overturned, and Spencer landed in the hospital with a cracked vertebra. Unable to return to the mine, Spencer arranged to play his banjo and sing in a nightspot, the Bucket of Blood, where he earned $9 in tips on his first night. Despite his father’s urging to return to the mines, Spencer found the “mining” of this silver more profitable, and he never returned to his former job.

Western movies had long held a particular fascination for Spencer. He readily recalled his trips to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and to Kansas City to see stage personalities and his western movie heroes Tom Mix, William S. Hart, and Hoot Gibson. Gene Austin was his first musical idol. The impact of these artists was so great he felt compelled to move to California to see if there wasn’t a need for his talents. In 1931, his father drove him to Tulsa, where he took the train for Los Angeles.

Arriving at the home of brother Glenn, Spencer’s first concern was finding a job, and he soon found work in the shipping department of Safeway’s big warehouse. His evenings and weekends were spent making the rounds of all the country radio shows and dances, getting acquainted with anyone even remotely connected with the music. He learned the names of all the local groups and individual performers. The trio that sang with the Rocky Mountaineers not only sounded better than the rest, they also featured a fair amount of music that Spencer thought sounded different from what was being played.

He learned from an ad in the newspaper that the Mountaineers were looking for a baritone singer who could yodel. Tim said, “I wasn’t a baritone, and I had never yodeled, but I found out that I could, so I applied and was hired as a replacement for Bob Nolan, joining Leonard Slye and ‘Slumber’ Nichols in the trio.” This association lasted from August to December 1932. Leaving the Mountaineers, the trio soon joined Benny Nawahi in forming the International Cowboys. The name was thought appropriate because each member was of a different ethnic background.

Within a few months the fellows took leave of Nawahi to form the O-Bar-O Cowboys. They decided to go to Del Rio, Texas where there was a big 50,000 watt radio station, but the trip was a financial disaster. From Spencer’s standpoint, the only positive result of the trip was that he met his future wife, Velma Blanton, in Lubbock, Texas.

Velma Blanton was born on June 13th, 1916 in Stephenville, Texas, and the family moved into Lubbock sometime around 1926. She had just completed her junior year in Lubbock High when she met Leonard Slye and Tim Spencer at the radio station KFWO. Tim was divorced from his first wife and had a five-year-old daughter, Raelene, when he met Velma. Velma initially urged him to return to his wife, but that relationship was dead by then. From that point on Tim and Velma's courtship was carried on by letter and telephone.

It was a despondent trio that returned to Los Angeles in late August 1933. Spencer called the return trip the low point in his career. He felt the trio of himself, Slye, and Nichols was better than any he had ever heard, and he just couldn’t understand why they had not been more successful. Nevertheless, eating was an important habit, so it was back to his old job with Safeway. Spencer recalled, with a big grin, how pleased he was when Slye came by not long after their return, suggesting that they try the trio once again. In those days Spencer was an eternal optimist, and he needed little persuasion to return to his first love, music. Slye always owned a car, so the two of them drove over to the Bel Air Country Club to talk with Nolan, who was working there as a caddie. It took considerable urging to convince Nolan, but as Spencer recalled, “I talked him into it.”

The trio located meager housing in Hollywood, where they spent many exhausting hours preparing for their debut. They agreed that a western theme was the most promising course, using the impressive songs that Nolan had composed, and they called themselves the Pioneer Trio. Eventually their hard work and perseverance paid off: they auditioned for and were hired by KFWB radio station in Los Angeles as staff musicians and given their own daily 15-minute spot. At a suggestion from Harry Hall, they changed their name to The Sons of the Pioneers and began to receive a regular paycheck of somewhere between $35 and $40.

By January 1934 the group’s popularity was growing and they were performing 20 times a week, as the Pioneers Trio and as staff musicians with Jack and his Texas Outlaws, the Gold Star Rangers, and the Jack Joy Orchestra. They were singing constantly, and their voices were tired. They decided to add a fiddler and they all agreed: It had to be Hugh Farr. Spencer said that, without question, Farr was the finest fiddler he had ever heard, and from the beginning he contributed so much to the success of the Sons of the Pioneers.

Meanwhile, in Lubbock Texas Velma Blanton had finished her senior year of high school. She travelled with her mother and younger sister, Frances, to California where she and Tim were married on August 10, 1934, at the Wee Kirk of the Heather at Forest Lawn. Hugh Farr played the fiddle and Bob Nolan sang "I Love You Truly". Len Slye (Roy Rogers) and his wife, Arline, were also present.

Tim and Velma lived in a little apartment just a few blocks from the big boarding house where Roy, Bob and Tim had lived when they started the Pioneer Trio. According to Tim's new wife

"...they got up in the morning and it was just like going to a job in an office or a store. They rehearsed for eight hours a day. They worked out their own melodies and their own arrangements. They just had a unique sound they worked out and I don't believe that any other group of people have ever been able to capture exactly the sound that they had."

They weren't in the apartment more than a month when Tim wrote his first song, "Will You Love Me When My Hair Has Turned to Silver?" And, having grown up on a homestead in New Mexico, he said he got a lot of his inspiration from his memories. Velma said, "He loved the mountains and the prairies and plains and he wrote about them."

A daughter, Loretta Lee, was born the first year and a son, Harold, was born the next. Tim took leave from the Sons of the Pioneers after Harold’s birth.

The Pioneers had begun appearing in movies in 1935. In 1937, during Spencer’s absence, Len Slye left the group to make movies full time with Republic Pictures. Tim had been replaced in the vocal trio by the talented Lloyd Perryman, and Len was replaced by Robert Ellsworth O’Brady, better known as Pat Brady. When Tim returned to the group in 1938, with Perryman’s voice in the trio Tim was able to switch from singing tenor to the much more comfortable lead spot.

NOTE: Tim’s musical career is heavily tied to the Sons of the Pioneers’ career as a group. The group’s career is documented in much greater detail in Bob Nolan’s biography pages, beginning here.

(Courtesy of John Fullerton)

In addition to continuing radio and live show performances, the Sons of the Pioneers continued to appear in movies until their contract with Republic Pictures ended in 1948. After the Sons of the Pioneers stopped making movies, Velma remembered, they would go on tour for three or four months each summer. Often the Pioneer women would get together while their men were away and party a bit.

A baby shower for Buddie Perryman in 1943
Right to left: Buddie (Mrs Lloyd) Perryman, seated, Velma (Mrs. Tim) Spencer, Mae (Mrs. Karl) Farr, P-Nuts (Mrs. Bob) Nolan, Rosita (Mrs. Hugh) Farr, Fayetta (Mrs. Pat) Brady, Claudina (Fayetta's twin sister), Fern (Mrs. Sam) Allen, Peggy (Mrs. Shug) Fisher, Margo (friend of Fern's).
(Calin Coburn Collections ©2004)

Claudina, Fayetta Brady, P-Nuts Nolan, unidentified man, Velma Spencer and Buddie Perryman
(Claudina was Fayetta's twin sister and was included in many of these gatherings although she wasn't married to any of the Sons of the Pioneers.)
(Calin Coburn Collections ©2004)

Unidentified woman (Arline?), Fern (Mrs. Sam) Allen, Roy Rogers, P-Nuts (Mrs. Bob) Nolan and Velma (Mrs. Tim) Spencer
(Calin Coburn Collections ©2004)

Ken Carson remembered that he and Tim were roommates whenever they were out of town or on tour.

"I got to know Tim pretty well. He was not a very talkative guy but was a very sincere, very nice man. It was always a good pleasure being with him and I enjoyed his company. I think he was more outgoing than Nolan was. Nolan kind of stayed within himself a lot. Hugh and Karl were constantly at each other's throats all the time. They argued 18 hours a day. Tim was very nice to me - I was kind of the kid of the family. I helped him write a few bars of "Room Full of Roses" - just suggestions, things like that, but nothing I could claim any part of."
(Song of the West, Fall 1990, p. 15 “Ken Carson Remembers Tim Spencer” by William Jacobson.)

Tim's son, Harold, recalls the Pioneers as being one big happy family, a close-knit group with the families, wives and kids.

"There were always barbecues, dinners and outdoor things at one or the other's house. There were a lot of fishing trips at Lake Henshaw in San Diego where all the Pioneers and the kids would go fishing. There didn't seem to be a lot of differences of opinion or conflict in the group. That came later. I remember just a lot of harmony in the group. Closeness. But they could be really rough. Dad, Roy, Hugh and the others were brawlers. They weren't drugstore cowboys; they were real guys. They had a couple of hangouts in the Studio City area near Republic Pictures. There was a lot of drinking. You could always find some of the Pioneers at the Little Bohemia or Herbert's Drive In. The closeness broke up after my dad and Bob left. "

Spencer spoke openly of his great admiration for his old friend Roy Rogers and said the Pioneers owed so much to Rogers. The Spencer and Rogers families remained close over the years. Spencer also expressed his strong admiration for Bob Nolan, stating that “Nolan was the greatest composer of our music who ever lived.” It was apparent from listening to Spencer’s comments that his association with the group—and in particular with Nolan—was a most rewarding part of his life. 

Tim's contributions to the Sons of the Pioneers were manifold. He was the group's manager for years and, according to Velma he was the one who negotiated and brought about peaceful settlements. She considered him a sort of mother hen to the group.

Within a couple of years after the Pioneers had signed with RCA Victor, Spencer’s voice began to trouble him, so he sang less and less in the trio. In early 1949, he retired from active work and helped find his replacement, Ken Curtis. He continued to manage the Sons of the Pioneers until 1952 and recorded with them until 1957 for RCA.

After leaving the group, Spencer settled down to organize and manage his own gospel publishing business, Manna [Gaviota] Music. The firm obtained the publishing rights to How Great Thou Art which anchored the business.  He did a lot of work with Billy Graham and travelled out on his own as a singer in religious organizations. He and Stuart Hamblen produced five songs his son, Hal, had written for Decca. The last pop song he wrote was "You are so Precious to Me", a love ballad. After that, he gradually switched to writing gospel music.

About that time he decided it wasn't good to dwell on the past, so he dumped and burned about three quarters of the things he had collected—memorabilia, scrapbooks, etc. According to his son, he was a very goal-oriented person. He wanted his children to achieve—go to college, etc. He wasn't overtly affectionate toward his children; more like a business partner.

Tim did continue to perform some after leaving the Sons of the Pioneers. The Sons of the Pioneers (and other artists) appeared on a series of programs called "Here's to Veterans" that were sponsored by the Veterans Administration to inform returning veterans of their rights under the GI Bill. The group did not appear; one of them would talk about GI rights and then play one of their recordings. These programs continued into, possibly, 1952. The 15-minute program below, with Tim providing the narration, is courtesy of Anne and Peter Greb.

Spencer continued his involvement with gospel music as well. Phil Kerr was a well-known musical evangelist in the 1940's & 1950's through the evangelical Christian community of California. On each Monday night he held a Christian Musical program at the Municipal Auditorium in Pasadena as a showcase for Christian musicians of all sorts. Tim was often on this program, as were Sol Hoppii, Arnie Hartman, the Scoville Sisters, and various quartets, etc. (Helen Mullen).

Tim became ill in about 1968 and his son, Harold, resigned from his ten year teaching position in Apple Valley and took over the management of Manna Music.  Tim died on April 26, 1974. His Service of Memory was held on April 29, 1974, at the Church of the Hills, conducted by Rev. O. William Hansen, Apple Valley, CA. The eulogy was given by his son, Hal Spencer and was followed by remarks by friends. The organist was J. Wesley Johnson, soloist Tony Fontaine. The room was filled with roses. A musical tribute was given by the Sons of the Pioneers followed by interment in the Enduring Faith Section of Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, LA, CA.

Tim’s wife Velma passed away on April 27, 2008.

Without Tim Spencer’s musical abilities, shrewd business sense and his songwriting skills, there could have been no Sons of the Pioneers.

Lloyd Perryman, Bob Nolan, Ken Griffis, Tim Spencer and Stuart Hamblen in Stuart Hamblen's home for the first Ken Griffis interview on January 2, 1972
(Calin Coburn Collections ©2004)

Spencer’s contributions as a songwriter and a performer earned him numerous accolades, including the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Western Performers Hall of Fame, and the Western Music Association Hall of Fame, both as a songwriter and as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers.

He wrote over 100 songs, including some with fellow bandmates Bob Nolan and Roy Rogers, and as many were recorded by the Sons of the Pioneers, he played a major role in defining the genre now known as “Western” or “Cowboy” music. His first song, “Will You Love Me When My Hair Has Turned to Silver?,” was written in 1934 and dedicated to his new wife, Velma.

“When we got married we had rented a flat because he knew my mother and sister were coming out. I believe that we hadn't been in the flat more than a month he wrote his first song. My mother and sister had gone back to their home, which was in Lubbock, and Tim wrote a song one night and as I understand it was his first one, that he hadn't written anything before that. "Will You Love Me When My Hair Has Turned To Silver?," it’s a beautiful song. That was the beginning of his songwriting career.”
(Song of the West: The Magazine of Cowboy and Western Music, the Tim Spencer Issue Fall 1990)

He wrote “The Little Guy Who Looks Like You” during World War II, while Lloyd Perryman was serving in Burma. His beautiful composition The Everlasting Hills of Oklahoma became the state song of Oklahoma; it was the song he was most proud of. The last pop song he wrote was "You are so Precious to Me", a love ballad. After that, he gradually switched to writing gospel music.

His best-known composition is probably Room Full of Roses. It was a major pop hit for Sammy Kaye and his Orchestra with the vocal by Don Cornell (who went on to a very successful career of his own). Dick Haymes also had a successful version of the song. In those days a good song was recorded by a number of artists and there were often multiple hit versions of the same song.

Top Ten versions of Room Full of Roses were by: Sammy Kaye, Eddy Howard and Dick Haymes. George Morgan had a top ten version on the country charts. Years later Mickey Gilley (Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin) had his first national hit with his number 1 country version of Room Full of Roses.
(Lawrence Zwisohn)