Cowboy Copas / The Oklahoma Cowboy

Country music writer and recording star Lloyd Estel Copas was born on July 15, 1913, on Moon Hollow near Blue Creek in Adams County, Ohio. Reared by musical parents, he learned to play the guitar and fiddle at an early age and began a singing career by age 10. As early as age 14, he was playing and singing on radio stations in Ohio, West Virginia, and Tennessee. He later adopted the sobriquets “Oklahoma Cowboy” and “Cowboy Copas.” Known as “The Waltz King of The Grand Ole Opry,” he was a regular performer there from 1946 until his death. His first record, “Filipino Baby,” was released in 1944. In 1948, he became the first to record and popularize “Tennessee Waltz,” later the state song of Tennessee. He also wrote and recorded numerous country ballads and honky tonk songs from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. He died in a plane crash on March 5, 1963, near Camden, Tennessee.

West Union, Ohio · United States