Burl Ives

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades.

Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own radio show, The Wayfaring Stranger, which popularized traditional folk songs. In 1942, he appeared in Irving Berlin's This Is the Army and became a major star of CBS Radio. In the 1960s, Ives successfully crossed over into country music, recording hits such as "A Little Bitty Tear" and "Funny Way of Laughin'". He was also a popular film actor through the late 1940s and '50s. Ives's film roles included parts in So Dear to My Heart (1948) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), as well as the role of Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country (1958), for which Ives won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the film noir Day of the Outlaw (1959).

Ives is often associated with the Christmas season. He did voice-over work as Sam the Snowman, narrator of the classic 1964 Christmas television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Ives also worked on the special's soundtrack, including the songs "A Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", both of which continue to chart annually on the Billboard holiday charts into the 2020s.

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was born on June 14, 1909, in Hunt City, an unincorporated town in Jasper County, Illinois, near Newton, to Levi "Frank" Ives (1880–1947) and Cordelia "Dellie" (née White; 1882–1954). He had six siblings: Audry, Artie, Clarence, Argola, Lillburn, and Norma. Frank was first a farmer and then a contractor for the county and others. One day, Ives was singing in the garden with Dellie, and his uncle overheard them. He invited his nephew to sing at the old soldiers' reunion in Hunt City. The boy performed a rendition of the folk ballad "Barbara Allen" and impressed both his uncle and the audience.

Ives graduated from Newton High School in 1927. From 1927 to 1929, he attended Eastern Illinois State Teachers College (now Eastern Illinois University) in Charleston, Illinois, where he played football. As a junior, Ives was sitting in English class, listening to a lecture on Beowulf, when he suddenly realized he was wasting his time. As Ives walked out of the door, the professor made a snide remark and Ives slammed the door behind him, shattering the window in the door. Sixty years later, the school named a building after its most famous dropout. Ives was a member of the Charleston Chapter of The Order of DeMolay and is listed in the DeMolay Hall of Fame. He was also initiated into Scottish Rite Freemasonry in 1927. In 1987, Ives was elevated to the 33rd and highest degree, and was later elected the Grand Cross.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.