On This Day in 1984, Country Music Said Goodbye to the “Texas Troubadour”—a True Honky Tonk Pioneer

In 1936, an aspiring country singer-songwriter named Ernest Tubb reached out to the widow of his idol, Jimmie Rodgers, for a signed photograph. He found much more than that when he struck up a friendship with Carrie Rodgers, who played an instrumental role in Tubb landing a contract with RCA Records. Although finding little success with his first two albums, the son of a Texas sharecropper would go on to define an entire genre. On this day in 1984, the country music world lost a bona fide legend when Ernest Tubb died from emphysema at age 70.

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#RIP #OTD in 1984, singer ("Waltz across Texas"), songwriter ("Walking the Floor over You"), The Texas Troubadour, the original E.T., Ernest Tubb died from emphysema in Nashville at the age of 70. Hermitage Memorial Gardens in Old Hickory, Tennessee https://t.co/QiQlyxA84M pic.twitter.com/4kM5Am0t9F

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) September 6, 2025

Born Feb. 9, 1914, on a cotton farm in Crisp, Texas, Ernest Tubb grew up singing, yodeling, and playing guitar. At age 19, San Antonio radio station KONO-AM hired him as a singer. To make ends meet, Tubb also dug ditches for the Works Progress Administration and worked as a drug store clerk.

After a 1939 tonsillectomy meant he could no longer yodel, Tubb focused on songwriting. A year later, the Grand Ole Opry member switched to Decca Records to give singing another shot. In 1941, he achieved the biggest hit of his career with the self-penned “Walking the Floor Over You,” which many credit with launching the honky-tonk genre.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1941, Ernest Tubb Changed Country Music History with a Song He Wrote While His Wife Was Away]

Ernest Tubb Continued Touring Against Medical Advice

Ernest Tubb would release more than 30 hit singles during the ’50s, including “Driftwood on the River” and “Yellow Rose of Texas.” Although the hits largely stopped coming in the ’60s, Tubb’s fanbase remained fiercely loyal, regularly packing his shows at the Grand Ole Opry.

In 1966, doctors diagnosed the Country Music Hall of Famer with emphysema and warned him to put the brakes on his singing career. Tubb ignored them, continuing to record and tour until he was finally forced to retire in 1982. Between shows, he would rest on cots and take oxygen—eerily similar to his hero, Jimmie Rodgers.

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