Howard Crockett
Musician · 1925–1994 · Yellow Pine, Louisiana
Best known for
Songwriter
Howard Crockett — born Howard Hausey — was a Louisiana-born country songwriter and Brooklyn Dodgers farmhand whose 200-song catalog includes Johnny Horton’s “Honky Tonk Man” (1956), “Whispering Pines,” and the country-bluegrass standard “Slewfoot.” Dwight Yoakam’s 1986 revival of “Honky Tonk Man” pushed it back into the country Top 5 thirty years after Horton’s original.
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- Born Howard Elton Hausey on December 25, 1925, in Yellow Pine, Webster Parish, Louisiana.
- Pitched in the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system; a shoulder injury ended his baseball career and pushed him into music.
- Pitched three of his songs to Johnny Horton in late 1955 in Shreveport; Horton recorded “Honky Tonk Man” in 1956 and made it a country Top-Ten hit.
- Wrote “Whispering Pines,” “Slewfoot,” and many other songs that became Horton singles.
- Began recording under the stage name “Crockett” on Dot Records in 1957.
- Catalog of roughly 200 songs included four gold-record sides, two platinums, and one double platinum.
- Inducted into the LSSCMA Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.
- Died of lung cancer in Fort Worth, Texas on December 27, 1994.
