Born on This Day in 1910, the Self-Proclaimed King of Western Swing Who Died While Awaiting Parole After His Wife’s Death

On this day (December 17) in 1910, Donnell “Spade” Cooley was born in Grand, Oklahoma. He was an in-demand fiddle player who became a prominent figure in the western swing scene of California in the 1930s and ’40s. He helped coin the subgenre’s name and was one of its foremost bandleaders. After retiring, he murdered his wife. Years later, he died before he could be released on parole.

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Cooley grew up in a musical family. His father and grandfather were fiddlers and passed their knowledge of the instrument to him. He was entertaining friends and family at parties with his fiddle skills at eight years old. He continued to hone his skills in Oklahoma until 1930, when his family fled the state during the Dust Bowl. Like many other families from the Oklahoma region, they landed in California.

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According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, Cooley didn’t want to be tied to a life of sharecropping to make ends meet. As a result, he went to Los Angeles in search of fame. He quickly found a slot in Jimmy Wakely’s big band, which played at the Venice Pier Ballroom. Countless dancers filed into the venue to hear the band. When Wakely signed a deal with Universal Pictures and became a singing cowboy, Cooley took his place as bandleader.

At the time, Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys were seeing major success. Cooley hoped to follow their lead. As a result, he added Tex Williams to the band as a vocalist. He hoped they could recreate the chemistry that Wills and his singer, Tommy Duncan.

Spade Cooley: The King of Western Swing

In the summer of 1942, Spade Cooley and his band went up against Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys in a battle of the bands-style competition and won.

While Wills and his band were pioneers in the subgenre, they didn’t really have a name for the music they played–a blend of big band jazz and honky tonk. Cooley and his promoter, Forman Phillips, coined the term “western swing,” and it stuck. He began billing himself as the King of Western Swing.

Later, he became a stand-in and stuntman for Roy Rogers and played fiddle in dozens of western films. He also joined Rogers’ band, Riders of the Purple Sage, as a singer and fiddler. After the band split, he began hosting The Spade Cooley Show on KTLA in Los Angeles. Before the network canceled the show in 1956, it reached national syndication.

In 1960, Cooley announced his retirement. However, his time in the public eye was not over.

Cooley Does Time

Spade Cooley filed for divorce from his second wife, Ella Mae Evans, in March 1961. On April 3, he murdered Evans in their Willow Springs home. During the trial, their 14-year-old daughter, Melody, told the court that she watched the savage beating that led to her mother’s death.

Cooley was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. However, he would be eligible for parole after only seven years. In 1969, he came up for parole. Many of his famous friends lobbied then-governor Ronald Reagan to free Cooley.

He was granted parole and scheduled to be released on November 24, 1969. However, the night before his release date, Cooley was granted a furlough to perform at a benefit concert in Oakland, California. He died of a heart attack while backstage.

Featured Image by CBS via Getty Images