Cindy Walker
Musician · 1918–2006 · Mexia, Texas
Best known for
Songwriter
Cindy Walker (1918–2006) was a Texas songwriter whose catalog of more than 650 songs runs from western swing to pop, and she is remembered as one of the most recorded writers in country music. Born near Mart, Texas, and raised in a musical family, she joined a touring vaudeville troupe as a child and was writing songs by twelve. In 1941 Bob Wills agreed to record four of her songs, among them “Blue Bonnet Lane,” “Cherokee Maiden” and “Dusty Skies,” which opened a decades-long run of Wills cuts and film songs.
Assisted by AI.
Spot something off? Help us fix it.
- Wrote “You Don’t Know Me” (with Eddy Arnold), “Dream Baby,” “In the Misty Moonlight,” “Distant Drums” and “Anna Marie.”
- Bob Wills recorded more than fifty of her songs; Willie Nelson devoted an entire album to them in 2006.
- Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (1997).
- Lived and worked from a modest home in Mexia, Texas, for most of her career.
