 (Photo courtesy of Joe Taylor & Patty Corbett) Above, Smiley Burnette playing his accordion and entertaining with the Red Birds country-western singing group --- Joe Taylor shown on guitar and Bill Allen on bass fiddle, circa 1953 or 1954 at the Buck Lake Ranch near Fort Wayne, Indiana. Smiley sang and did his 'Frog Millhouse' characterization from his movie days.  (Courtesy of Belinda Kirkhuff)  (Courtesy of Belinda Kirkhuff) Above, an autographed photo of Smiley Burnette given to supporting actor Jack 'Pappy' Kirk. |
 | Want more info on Smiley's movie roles with Charles 'Durango Kid' Starrett, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Click HERE for the filmography on Charles Starrett, HERE for the filmography on Gene Autry, and HERE for the film listing on Roy Rogers. The three movie listings include the films in which Smiley Burnette appeared --- look in the column marked 'Sidekick'. |
The Burnette family has an informative and fun website on their famous relative. The official Smiley Burnette website is at: http://www.smileyburnette.org/
Dian and Greg Chapman have a page devoted to Smiley: http://www.mousetrax.com/smiley.html
Dave Stein's Petticoat Junction TV show website has a bunch of photos of Smiley Burnette which were provided by the Burnette family: http://petticoat.topcities.com/raresmiley.htm
The Nashville Songwriters Foundation Hall Of Fame includes Smiley Burnette, Jimmy Wakely, Gene Autry, Johnny Bond, Ray Whitley, Tex Ritter, Bob Nolan, Bob Wills, more. The link below will take you to their website and when you get there, click on 'Hall of Fame': http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/
There's a website on Missouri radio station KBOA, and apparently, Smiley worked for them and one of their sponsors (Hart's bread): http://www.basementdiaries.com/kboa830/performers.html
Smiley wrote hundreds of songs. One of Burnette's compositions (with Autry) was "Ridin' Down the Canyon", and you can see the full lyrics at the Lyrics Connection website: http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/ridin-down-canyon.shtml
Jim Tipton's Find-A-Grave website has a picture of the grave marker for Burnette at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5154
Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Smiley Burnette: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0122470/
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