1959-23 years old, back in Springfield, Missouri after my four years in the Navy, I had joined my Uncle Bob Johnson in his vision for a Ranch for homeless boys, The Good Samaritan Boys Ranch. To promote the work, I had gone to radio stations around the region and asked for 30 minutes of air time to do our radio show from the Ranch.
One day, in Octoberr, 1959, I was in the studios of Radio Station KWTO, in Springfield. This is the old flagship station that I grew up listening to with live country music, and which launched the television show, Ozark Jubilee, while I was gone to the Navy. I was at the station working on a Gospel album for the Ranch, and on this day, just putting down some of my favorites from growing up in an Old Country Church. I was standing at the mike, just me and my J45 Gibson, not paying a whole lot of attention to what was happening outside the studio. The studio had a big picture window in the hallway where folks could see what was going on inside. I had put down two or three songs, when I caught a bit of movement at the picture window. A man was standing there, watching and listening on the little outside speakers in the hall. I went on and did three or four more songs, and then, put my guitar back in the case and stepped out in the hall. The man listening was dressed in a full length white leather coat, and his dark sun glasses, below his red hair, couldn't hide the identity of Red Foley. As I started to step around him, he reached out and put his hand on my shoulder, and with his other hand, reached up and removed his sun glasses. His eyes were moist as he said, "Son, your singing those old Gospel songs touched my heart.", he asked my name and I told him, and we talked for a few minutes. He then said, "Stan, I would like for you to come do some of my State Fair Shows."
Red was one of the kindest men I ever met. From that simple meeting, in the hall outside the studios of KWTO, we went on to be friends, and he became a mentor to this Ozark kid, until the day he died. Red did this many times, to many young artists, it was just the way he was.
His personal life was dreadful. Alcoholism, a bitterly unhappy marriage, the IRS trying to destroy him, sorrow from his previous wife and mother of his children suicide, his network tv show starting to be a heavy weekly burden in his fragile health condition, and the road work concert schedule almost more than he could handle. This was his life when I met hm in that radio hallway, in 1959. Still, Red Foley had a genuine love for people. His raising in the Berea, Kentucky area had instilled in him a goodness that outside forces could not erase.
He encouraged me to seek a life of music, and a couple of years later, I signed my Columbia Records/Epic Records contract and moved to Nashville. Red had moved back to Nashville by that time, he had beaten the IRS attack, and seemed to be doing pretty good. In the Spring of 1968, I was flying out of the Nashville Airport, and Red was flying back in. We passed each other on the concourse and Red came over and hugged me. He said, "Stan, the doctor told me I had to stop drinking or it was gonna kill me, so I am not touching it." On September 19th of that same year, while on tour in Indiana, Red Foley died in his Hotel Room, alone. His last song, on stage at the show that night, "Peace In The Valley". Red Foley had gone on Home. Stan
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