Keith Lester Henson, 63, of Eufaula, passed away Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at his home. Keith was born on February 10, 1953, in Bakersfield, California, the son of Herbert Lester and Katherine Joylene (Cheatwood) Henson. He graduated from high school in Santa Barbara. He later enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Keith was a country singer for most of his adult life. He was a member of the Back Porch County Band playing mostly in Las Vegas. Survivors include: his daughter Jodi Andrew of Seattle, Washington; his brothers, Kenneth Henson of Jacksonville, Oregon, Michael Henson and wife Vicki of Sallisaw and Rick Henson of Eufaula; his sister, Judy McDonald of Muskogee. He is preceded in death by his parents; one niece, Tammy Henson; and one nephew, Dustin Henson. Memorial services will be held at a later date.
ROBERT PRICE, Californian staff writer
One day in the mid-'40s - no one is sure what year, much less what day - an itinerant musician from East St. Louis, Ill., jumped off a Union Pacific boxcar somewhere on the outskirts of Bakersfield and, in a small way, helped change the course of American music.
Herbert Lester Henson could play a few hymns on the piano, but the regional fame he would eventually achieve had less to do with his skills as a musician than with his true gift - likability.
You had to be a tone-deaf sourpuss not to like stocky, amiable "Cousin" Herb Henson.
Like so many other Bakersfield musicians, Henson's first jobs were in the cotton fields of the San Joaquin Valley. But Henson was too personable to labor long in the fields; after a brief stay in Fresno he landed a job making door-to-door laundry pickups for Ted Saulsbury Cleaners. Sometimes he'd spot a piano in a customer's living room, and one thing would lead to another: Inevitably, Henson would be plinkety-plinking out some gospel standard, and he would eventually leave with more laundry than the customer had first intended to send out.
"Herb just had a fine gift of gab, a natural born pitch man he was," said Bill Woods, the Bakersfield band leader who convinced Henson to move south from Fresno in 1946. "I've never heard anybody who could sell like him."
Later Henson became a disc jockey and, eventually, a comedian/musician at honky-tonks like the Clover Club and the Blackboard.
Henson's likability (and status as a popular disc jockey KERO-AM and KPMC-AM) got him through the office door of KERO-TV's general manager one day in September 1953; he left with his own television program. Cousin Herb's "Trading Post" show, originally co-starring Bill Woods and Billy Mize, became a favorite throughout the valley, thanks to a signal that boosted the program well past Fresno and all the way over to the coast.
The 45-minute-long program was broadcast every Monday through Friday for 10 years.
His inaugural cast of Mize, Woods, Johnny Cuviello and Carlton Ellis was soon fortified with several performers from the Clover Club and elsewhere, people like Bonnie Owens, Lewis Talley, Fuzzy Owen, Al Brumley, Roy Nichols and Dallas Frazier. His list of guest stars over the years reads like a Music Row telephone book: Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Merle Travis, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Spade Cooley, Dan "Hoss Cartwright" Blocker, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and, toward the end, a very young Barbara Mandrell. Unlikely performers like Rudy Vallee, Lawrence Welk and the Lennon Sisters also showed up.
Henson, Merle Haggard once wrote, was the Ralph Emery of Bakersfield.
Henson recorded for the Shasta, Decca and Capitol labels, gaining moderate national attention for "Y'all Come," the Arlie Duff composition that became Cousin Herb's signature song. Henson also performed regularly in concert, and as a host/headliner was capable of drawing 10,000 fans to outdoor shows.
"Country was hot then," Woods said. "You could play a tambourine and draw a crowd."
And no one drew crowds better than Henson, who took his position of local prominence to another level in 1960.
That's the year Valley Radio Corp. bought KIKK radio, switched its format to country music and hired Henson as president and general manager. The station's call letters were changed to KUZZ to play on Henson's celebrity, and Cousin Herb, whose TV show continued to make him a fixture in living rooms throughout the Central Valley, became "Kuzzin Herb."
On Sept. 12, 1963, two dozen country-music stars gathered at the 11-month-old Bakersfield Civic Center (now known as Bakersfield Convention Center) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the "Trading Post" show. Among the performers were Glen Campbell, Tommy Collins and Roy Clark.
By this time, Henson already had a hunch his days was short, although his business demeanor didn't suggest it: He had recently made arrangements to switch from KERO to competing KBAK. At the same time, however, Henson was concerned about his health after suffering a heart attack, even going so far to tell his wife, Katherine, how painful it was to think that another man might raise his four sons.
But about six weeks after the anniversary show, Henson woke up in the middle of the night and roused his wife from her sleep. As young and pretty as she was, he told her, she should marry again after he died.
Henson's son, Rick, will never forget the events of Nov. 26, 1963. His celebrity father, finished with that afternoon's "Trading Post" broadcast, had come home for the day. Katherine was off playing with the KUZZ bowling team, so Cousin Herb had gone for a walk over to his sister's house, a regular activity prescribed by his doctors.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door of the Henson home. Someone needed to use the telephone: Cousin Herb was lying in the street.
The four boys - Rick, Dusty, Mike and Rusty - were taken to their aunt and uncle's house. Their aunt tried to keep the boys' minds elsewhere, but that proved difficult. Every five minutes, it seemed, a TV announcer was telling viewers that Cousin Herb had died.
News broadcasts had been full of grief and speculation for four days now, ever since the assassination of President Kennedy. And now this - the music man of Bakersfield, dead at 38.
ROBERT PRICE, Californian staff writer
One day in the mid-'40s - no one is sure what year, much less what day - an itinerant musician from East St. Louis, Ill., jumped off a Union Pacific boxcar somewhere on the outskirts of Bakersfield and, in a small way, helped change the course of American music.
Herbert Lester Henson could play a few hymns on the piano, but the regional fame he would eventually achieve had less to do with his skills as a musician than with his true gift - likability.
You had to be a tone-deaf sourpuss not to like stocky, amiable "Cousin" Herb Henson.
Like so many other Bakersfield musicians, Henson's first jobs were in the cotton fields of the San Joaquin Valley. But Henson was too personable to labor long in the fields; after a brief stay in Fresno he landed a job making door-to-door laundry pickups for Ted Saulsbury Cleaners. Sometimes he'd spot a piano in a customer's living room, and one thing would lead to another: Inevitably, Henson would be plinkety-plinking out some gospel standard, and he would eventually leave with more laundry than the customer had first intended to send out.
"Herb just had a fine gift of gab, a natural born pitch man he was," said Bill Woods, the Bakersfield band leader who convinced Henson to move south from Fresno in 1946. "I've never heard anybody who could sell like him."
Later Henson became a disc jockey and, eventually, a comedian/musician at honky-tonks like the Clover Club and the Blackboard.
Henson's likability (and status as a popular disc jockey KERO-AM and KPMC-AM) got him through the office door of KERO-TV's general manager one day in September 1953; he left with his own television program. Cousin Herb's "Trading Post" show, originally co-starring Bill Woods and Billy Mize, became a favorite throughout the valley, thanks to a signal that boosted the program well past Fresno and all the way over to the coast.
The 45-minute-long program was broadcast every Monday through Friday for 10 years.
His inaugural cast of Mize, Woods, Johnny Cuviello and Carlton Ellis was soon fortified with several performers from the Clover Club and elsewhere, people like Bonnie Owens, Lewis Talley, Fuzzy Owen, Al Brumley, Roy Nichols and Dallas Frazier. His list of guest stars over the years reads like a Music Row telephone book: Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Merle Travis, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Spade Cooley, Dan "Hoss Cartwright" Blocker, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and, toward the end, a very young Barbara Mandrell. Unlikely performers like Rudy Vallee, Lawrence Welk and the Lennon Sisters also showed up.
Henson, Merle Haggard once wrote, was the Ralph Emery of Bakersfield.
Henson recorded for the Shasta, Decca and Capitol labels, gaining moderate national attention for "Y'all Come," the Arlie Duff composition that became Cousin Herb's signature song. Henson also performed regularly in concert, and as a host/headliner was capable of drawing 10,000 fans to outdoor shows.
"Country was hot then," Woods said. "You could play a tambourine and draw a crowd."
And no one drew crowds better than Henson, who took his position of local prominence to another level in 1960.
That's the year Valley Radio Corp. bought KIKK radio, switched its format to country music and hired Henson as president and general manager. The station's call letters were changed to KUZZ to play on Henson's celebrity, and Cousin Herb, whose TV show continued to make him a fixture in living rooms throughout the Central Valley, became "Kuzzin Herb."
On Sept. 12, 1963, two dozen country-music stars gathered at the 11-month-old Bakersfield Civic Center (now known as Bakersfield Convention Center) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the "Trading Post" show. Among the performers were Glen Campbell, Tommy Collins and Roy Clark.
By this time, Henson already had a hunch his days was short, although his business demeanor didn't suggest it: He had recently made arrangements to switch from KERO to competing KBAK. At the same time, however, Henson was concerned about his health after suffering a heart attack, even going so far to tell his wife, Katherine, how painful it was to think that another man might raise his four sons.
But about six weeks after the anniversary show, Henson woke up in the middle of the night and roused his wife from her sleep. As young and pretty as she was, he told her, she should marry again after he died.
Henson's son, Rick, will never forget the events of Nov. 26, 1963. His celebrity father, finished with that afternoon's "Trading Post" broadcast, had come home for the day. Katherine was off playing with the KUZZ bowling team, so Cousin Herb had gone for a walk over to his sister's house, a regular activity prescribed by his doctors.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door of the Henson home. Someone needed to use the telephone: Cousin Herb was lying in the street.
The four boys - Rick, Dusty, Mike and Rusty - were taken to their aunt and uncle's house. Their aunt tried to keep the boys' minds elsewhere, but that proved difficult. Every five minutes, it seemed, a TV announcer was telling viewers that Cousin Herb had died.
News broadcasts had been full of grief and speculation for four days now, ever since the assassination of President Kennedy. And now this - the music man of Bakersfield, dead at 38.
Keith Lester Henson, 63, of Eufaula, passed away Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at his home. Keith was born on February 10, 1953, in Bakersfield, California, the son of Herbert Lester and Katherine Joylene (Cheatwood) Henson. He graduated from high school in Santa Barbara. He later enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Keith was a country singer for most of his adult life. He was a member of the Back Porch County Band playing mostly in Las Vegas. Survivors include: his daughter Jodi Andrew of Seattle, Washington; his brothers, Kenneth Henson of Jacksonville, Oregon, Michael Henson and wife Vicki of Sallisaw and Rick Henson of Eufaula; his sister, Judy McDonald of Muskogee. He is preceded in death by his parents; one niece, Tammy Henson; and one nephew, Dustin Henson. Memorial services will be held at a later date.
ROBERT PRICE, Californian staff writer
One day in the mid-'40s - no one is sure what year, much less what day - an itinerant musician from East St. Louis, Ill., jumped off a Union Pacific boxcar somewhere on the outskirts of Bakersfield and, in a small way, helped change the course of American music.
Herbert Lester Henson could play a few hymns on the piano, but the regional fame he would eventually achieve had less to do with his skills as a musician than with his true gift - likability.
You had to be a tone-deaf sourpuss not to like stocky, amiable "Cousin" Herb Henson.
Like so many other Bakersfield musicians, Henson's first jobs were in the cotton fields of the San Joaquin Valley. But Henson was too personable to labor long in the fields; after a brief stay in Fresno he landed a job making door-to-door laundry pickups for Ted Saulsbury Cleaners. Sometimes he'd spot a piano in a customer's living room, and one thing would lead to another: Inevitably, Henson would be plinkety-plinking out some gospel standard, and he would eventually leave with more laundry than the customer had first intended to send out.
"Herb just had a fine gift of gab, a natural born pitch man he was," said Bill Woods, the Bakersfield band leader who convinced Henson to move south from Fresno in 1946. "I've never heard anybody who could sell like him."
Later Henson became a disc jockey and, eventually, a comedian/musician at honky-tonks like the Clover Club and the Blackboard.
Henson's likability (and status as a popular disc jockey KERO-AM and KPMC-AM) got him through the office door of KERO-TV's general manager one day in September 1953; he left with his own television program. Cousin Herb's "Trading Post" show, originally co-starring Bill Woods and Billy Mize, became a favorite throughout the valley, thanks to a signal that boosted the program well past Fresno and all the way over to the coast.
The 45-minute-long program was broadcast every Monday through Friday for 10 years.
His inaugural cast of Mize, Woods, Johnny Cuviello and Carlton Ellis was soon fortified with several performers from the Clover Club and elsewhere, people like Bonnie Owens, Lewis Talley, Fuzzy Owen, Al Brumley, Roy Nichols and Dallas Frazier. His list of guest stars over the years reads like a Music Row telephone book: Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Merle Travis, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Spade Cooley, Dan "Hoss Cartwright" Blocker, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and, toward the end, a very young Barbara Mandrell. Unlikely performers like Rudy Vallee, Lawrence Welk and the Lennon Sisters also showed up.
Henson, Merle Haggard once wrote, was the Ralph Emery of Bakersfield.
Henson recorded for the Shasta, Decca and Capitol labels, gaining moderate national attention for "Y'all Come," the Arlie Duff composition that became Cousin Herb's signature song. Henson also performed regularly in concert, and as a host/headliner was capable of drawing 10,000 fans to outdoor shows.
"Country was hot then," Woods said. "You could play a tambourine and draw a crowd."
And no one drew crowds better than Henson, who took his position of local prominence to another level in 1960.
That's the year Valley Radio Corp. bought KIKK radio, switched its format to country music and hired Henson as president and general manager. The station's call letters were changed to KUZZ to play on Henson's celebrity, and Cousin Herb, whose TV show continued to make him a fixture in living rooms throughout the Central Valley, became "Kuzzin Herb."
On Sept. 12, 1963, two dozen country-music stars gathered at the 11-month-old Bakersfield Civic Center (now known as Bakersfield Convention Center) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the "Trading Post" show. Among the performers were Glen Campbell, Tommy Collins and Roy Clark.
By this time, Henson already had a hunch his days was short, although his business demeanor didn't suggest it: He had recently made arrangements to switch from KERO to competing KBAK. At the same time, however, Henson was concerned about his health after suffering a heart attack, even going so far to tell his wife, Katherine, how painful it was to think that another man might raise his four sons.
But about six weeks after the anniversary show, Henson woke up in the middle of the night and roused his wife from her sleep. As young and pretty as she was, he told her, she should marry again after he died.
Henson's son, Rick, will never forget the events of Nov. 26, 1963. His celebrity father, finished with that afternoon's "Trading Post" broadcast, had come home for the day. Katherine was off playing with the KUZZ bowling team, so Cousin Herb had gone for a walk over to his sister's house, a regular activity prescribed by his doctors.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door of the Henson home. Someone needed to use the telephone: Cousin Herb was lying in the street.
The four boys - Rick, Dusty, Mike and Rusty - were taken to their aunt and uncle's house. Their aunt tried to keep the boys' minds elsewhere, but that proved difficult. Every five minutes, it seemed, a TV announcer was telling viewers that Cousin Herb had died.
News broadcasts had been full of grief and speculation for four days now, ever since the assassination of President Kennedy. And now this - the music man of Bakersfield, dead at 38.
ROBERT PRICE, Californian staff writer
One day in the mid-'40s - no one is sure what year, much less what day - an itinerant musician from East St. Louis, Ill., jumped off a Union Pacific boxcar somewhere on the outskirts of Bakersfield and, in a small way, helped change the course of American music.
Herbert Lester Henson could play a few hymns on the piano, but the regional fame he would eventually achieve had less to do with his skills as a musician than with his true gift - likability.
You had to be a tone-deaf sourpuss not to like stocky, amiable "Cousin" Herb Henson.
Like so many other Bakersfield musicians, Henson's first jobs were in the cotton fields of the San Joaquin Valley. But Henson was too personable to labor long in the fields; after a brief stay in Fresno he landed a job making door-to-door laundry pickups for Ted Saulsbury Cleaners. Sometimes he'd spot a piano in a customer's living room, and one thing would lead to another: Inevitably, Henson would be plinkety-plinking out some gospel standard, and he would eventually leave with more laundry than the customer had first intended to send out.
"Herb just had a fine gift of gab, a natural born pitch man he was," said Bill Woods, the Bakersfield band leader who convinced Henson to move south from Fresno in 1946. "I've never heard anybody who could sell like him."
Later Henson became a disc jockey and, eventually, a comedian/musician at honky-tonks like the Clover Club and the Blackboard.
Henson's likability (and status as a popular disc jockey KERO-AM and KPMC-AM) got him through the office door of KERO-TV's general manager one day in September 1953; he left with his own television program. Cousin Herb's "Trading Post" show, originally co-starring Bill Woods and Billy Mize, became a favorite throughout the valley, thanks to a signal that boosted the program well past Fresno and all the way over to the coast.
The 45-minute-long program was broadcast every Monday through Friday for 10 years.
His inaugural cast of Mize, Woods, Johnny Cuviello and Carlton Ellis was soon fortified with several performers from the Clover Club and elsewhere, people like Bonnie Owens, Lewis Talley, Fuzzy Owen, Al Brumley, Roy Nichols and Dallas Frazier. His list of guest stars over the years reads like a Music Row telephone book: Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Merle Travis, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Spade Cooley, Dan "Hoss Cartwright" Blocker, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and, toward the end, a very young Barbara Mandrell. Unlikely performers like Rudy Vallee, Lawrence Welk and the Lennon Sisters also showed up.
Henson, Merle Haggard once wrote, was the Ralph Emery of Bakersfield.
Henson recorded for the Shasta, Decca and Capitol labels, gaining moderate national attention for "Y'all Come," the Arlie Duff composition that became Cousin Herb's signature song. Henson also performed regularly in concert, and as a host/headliner was capable of drawing 10,000 fans to outdoor shows.
"Country was hot then," Woods said. "You could play a tambourine and draw a crowd."
And no one drew crowds better than Henson, who took his position of local prominence to another level in 1960.
That's the year Valley Radio Corp. bought KIKK radio, switched its format to country music and hired Henson as president and general manager. The station's call letters were changed to KUZZ to play on Henson's celebrity, and Cousin Herb, whose TV show continued to make him a fixture in living rooms throughout the Central Valley, became "Kuzzin Herb."
On Sept. 12, 1963, two dozen country-music stars gathered at the 11-month-old Bakersfield Civic Center (now known as Bakersfield Convention Center) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the "Trading Post" show. Among the performers were Glen Campbell, Tommy Collins and Roy Clark.
By this time, Henson already had a hunch his days was short, although his business demeanor didn't suggest it: He had recently made arrangements to switch from KERO to competing KBAK. At the same time, however, Henson was concerned about his health after suffering a heart attack, even going so far to tell his wife, Katherine, how painful it was to think that another man might raise his four sons.
But about six weeks after the anniversary show, Henson woke up in the middle of the night and roused his wife from her sleep. As young and pretty as she was, he told her, she should marry again after he died.
Henson's son, Rick, will never forget the events of Nov. 26, 1963. His celebrity father, finished with that afternoon's "Trading Post" broadcast, had come home for the day. Katherine was off playing with the KUZZ bowling team, so Cousin Herb had gone for a walk over to his sister's house, a regular activity prescribed by his doctors.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door of the Henson home. Someone needed to use the telephone: Cousin Herb was lying in the street.
The four boys - Rick, Dusty, Mike and Rusty - were taken to their aunt and uncle's house. Their aunt tried to keep the boys' minds elsewhere, but that proved difficult. Every five minutes, it seemed, a TV announcer was telling viewers that Cousin Herb had died.
News broadcasts had been full of grief and speculation for four days now, ever since the assassination of President Kennedy. And now this - the music man of Bakersfield, dead at 38.
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