Born: 6/14/09
Birthplace: Hunt City Township, Illinois

Died: 4/14/95

Listen:
Burl Ives, "The Eddystone Light"

Burl Ives, "Dublin City"

For a generation of children he was the storyteller in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but that was at the end of a long and diverse career.

Burl Ives parlayed his considerable talent as a folksinger into a wide-ranging career as a radio personality and award winning stage and screen actor. In his 20s he traveled around the country as an itinerant singer learning local folk songs along the way. In1937 he moved to New York City. Highlights of his career include:

1938 Broadway debut as well as singing folk songs in Greenwich Village clubs.

1940 performed regularly on radio and had his own show, The Wayfarin' Stranger, on CBS.

1946 movie debut in Smokey

1948 published his first book, Wayfaring Stranger

1949 his first chart hit with "Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)."

With the advent of the long-playing record, Ives suddenly had a flurry of LP releases from his three labels: The Wayfaring Stranger on Stinson; three volumes of Ballads & Folk Songs, Women: Folk Songs About the Fair Sex, Folk Songs Dramatic and Humorous, and Christmas Day in the Morning on Decca; and Wayfaring Stranger, Return of the Wayfaring Stranger, More Folk Songs, American Hymns, The Animal Fair and Mother Goose Songs on Columbia. He also recorded a series of albums for Encyclopedia Brittanica Films under the overall title Historical America in Song.

1951 made it into the Top Ten with "On Top of Old Smoky."

1950s continued to publish books, act on Broadway and in the movies. He made a number of albums that included Coronation Concert, The Wild Side of Life, Men, Down to the Sea in Ships, In the Quiet of the Night, Burl Ives Sings for Fun, Songs of Ireland, Old Time Varieties, Captain Burl Ives' Ark, Australian Folk Songs, and Cheers.

1958 earned an Academy Award for his performance as Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country.

1961 began leaning towards country music and had another top hit, this one in both the country and pop charts, "A Little Bitty Tear" The single was contained on 1962 "Funny Way of Laughin'" became another pop and country Top Ten and won Ives a Grammy Award for Best Country Western Recording

1963 worked with Walt Disney Studios

1964 Again hit the charts with Pearly Shells in 1964 and made a children's album, Chim Chim Cheree and Other Children's Choices, for Disney Buena Vista Records.

Late 1960s He returned to Columbia Records for The Times They Are A-Changin' and Softly and Tenderly then retired from popular recording.

1973 recorded with the country album Payin' My Dues Again. He continued to record children's music and also released several religious albums on Word Records.