A Family of Musicians
The Mayfields possessed a strong musical background. All played musical instruments, beginning with the mandolin. Mayfield and two brothers, Thomas Edward "Edd" Mayfield (1926–1958) and Herbert E. Mayfield (1920–2008), went on the Bluegrass circuit and opened in Amarillo and Lubbock for Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Maddox Brothers and Rose as the Green Valley Boys, named for their ranch. Edd Mayfield left the family band and played the guitar with a thumbpick for a decade with Bill Monroe, considered the "father of Bluegrass". Edd Mayfield was described as "a handsome, tough-as-barbed-wire cowpuncher, who literally grew up on a ranch, who could ride hard, lasso accurately, and literally toss and tie up a bull … and had the wiry strength of a gymnast." While he was on tour with Monroe, Edd Mayfield died of leukemia in a hospital in Bluefield, West Virginia.
Herb Mayfield recalled that he and his brothers enjoyed music so much that they would race home after doing their ranch chores so that they could practice. Eventually, Smokey chose the fiddle as his instrument. He was, however, too small to hold a full-sized instrument under his chin. So he anchored the fiddle between his chest and the wall of the barn. He continued to play in that position, with the fiddle on his chest rather than under his chin, into adulthood.
Smokey Mayfield resided in Hutchinson County near Spearman, which is the seat of Hansford County in the northern Panhandle. He and worked for a half century for the historic Turkey Track Ranch in Hutchinson County. Herb Mayfield was born in Erick, Oklahoma, but lived in Dimmitt and graduated from Dimmitt High School. During World War II, he participated in troop lifts in Normandy and, like Smokey, the Battle of the Bulge. Thereafter, he was a welder for cattle feedlots in Dimmitt. He was for many years the president of the Dimmitt Rodeo Association and a member of the Panhandle Blue Grass Association. He died some three months prior to the passing of Smokey.
Read more about this topic: Smokey Mayfield
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