Simonton Texas

I’ll admit it, this article has less to do with news or opinion and more to do with one of my favorite songs when I was a kid.

I recently discovered that Dobie Gray claims Simonton as his birth place.  If you remember, in 1973, Dobie recorded one of the most memorable songs of the Seventies: “Drift Away”.  His career has spanned almost 5 decades since 1963 and he has written many top 40 hits featured in 22 albums.

I get daily news alerts for Simonton and one day recently, I got one with a news reference to Dobie Gray.  It mentioned Simonton was his home town.  Who’d of thought.  Someone famous could come from Simonton.  Well, the fact is that he’s not the only one (anyone heard of Tom DeLay?, yeah he lived in Valley Lodge many moons ago).  Anyway, Dobie claiming Simonton as his birthplace was a story that I personally found most interesting.

My curiosity was piqued and I started my google search.  I found enough history on Dobie Gray to keep me busy for a while. 

Here’s a snapshot of what I learned:

• Dobie was born into a sharecropping family.
• He was the son of  the grandson of a Baptist minister.
• It turns out that Dobie Gray has apparantly used several other stage names in his career: Leonard Ainsworth, Larry Curtis, and Larry Dennis.
• According to one website I found, it looks like Dobie Gray may have gone by two “real names”: Leonard Victor Ainsworth or Laurence Darrow Brown.  Go figure?

By the way, if anyone in town knows if he still has family in the area, I’d love to learn more about him.

Anyway, if you’re interested in learning more about your Simonton roots and one of it’s more noteable personalities, take a minute and learn about Simonton’s own Dobie Gray.  Why not buy one of his autographed photos available on his web site.  It’s a great way to remind yourself that Simonton is a great place to be from.

Learn more about Simonton’s own Dobie Gray

• From Dobie’s Promotional Website:  http://www.dobiegray.com/biography.html
• From Answers.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/dobie-gray
• From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobie_Gray