Curtis Wain was born in Lamar, Colorado back in 1916 to Dan and Nellie. The family moved to Las Animas which was the county seat in Bent County where his father ran for sheriff and was elected. The family lived below the jail and his mother cooked for the prisoners. He was the quarterback of Bent County High School football team. During WWII he served in the United States Army from 1943-1945.
After the war he attended Colorado College to study medicine but left shortly to pursue his musical career. He joined the “Sons of the Pioneers from 1949-1953, he also sung in the tommy Dorsey band. Columbia Pictures signed him to a contract where he starred in a series of musical Westerns. One of his songs still resonates with me and it is still played today the title “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky.” He was famous and everyone should remember him for a role he played for over a decade.
Sorry I guess now is as good as a time to tell you I’m writing about Curtis Wain Gates however you may know him better as Ken Curtis. Hmm, still don’t recognize who I’m talking about well how about Festus on Gunsmoke. In 1981 he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A statute of him as Festus can be found at 430 Pollasky Avenue in Clovis, California. He died in 1991 in his sleep of a heart attack..
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