Don Stewart and Eddy Arnold backstage at Valley Forge Theater on November 24, 1991. (Photo was autographed by Eddy at Valley Forge theater on November 10, 1996)

Don Stewart and Eddy Arnold backstage at Valley Forge Theater on November 10, 1996)

My name is Don Stewart and I live in Pennsylvania.

What an honor to be able to write about such a wonderful singer, in my opinion, the best ever, and have it put on this Eddy Arnold Webpage.

I first started to hear Eddy on a radio station in northern New Jersey, WAAT of Newark, New Jersey. The year was 1948 and I had just gotten out of the Navy and didn't have a car so several of my buddies and I would ride around town in one of my buddies 1932 Chevy. He liked country music, so he kept the radio tuned to WAAT.

I heard a lot of Hank Williams and the rest and most of it I didn't care that much for. Then all of a sudden they played an Eddy song and I perked up. At the end of the song I made sure I got the fellow's name and listened every time he came on. I just fell in love with the song "Molly Darling" and all the rest that followed. Living in close proximity to New York City we didn't hear much country music. I missed seeing him on the Purina show and never stayed up that late for the Johnny Carson show so I really started buying tapes in the early 1960's when I think his voice was at it's peak.

I first saw Eddy in concert on Broadway at the St. James Theater on November 28, 1974. He was appearing there for the Thanksgiving week so when I sent in for my tickets I said "I'll take any night, and being so I'm letting you choose the night, I would like seats as close to the stage as possible." They sent me front row center, as I counted the seats on both sides of us and we were exactly front row center.

I saw Eddy four more times through the years. I wish it could have been more. I was greatly saddened when I learned that May 16, 1999, was his last public performance. There will never be another person like him.

On a recent trip to Nashville, I took a ride to Brentwood and located his home. You couldn't see the house for all the trees so I took a picture of the pillars in front of his home and then I later wrote to him and sent a copy of the photograph. He wrote back and said "look why don't I give you my office address and the next time you are in town drop by we'll have a little chat." I thought that was so kind of him.

Through the years after finding out his secretary's name, Roberta Edging , I wrote her a nice letter and she sent me a nice letter, not once, but twice.

There is a great 5 Compact Disc set which was recently released by the Bear Family of all of his recordings from December 4, 1944 through December 31, 1950. You can find this information on this website and how to order it. It cost me $100.90 including shipping charges, and includes 120 songs and a 12 x 18 forty page picture album of his career . If anyone is interested call 1-800-494-2211 or one of the other toll free numbers given for this item. It is well worth it.

I could go on and on about this wonderful man, but I'll leave some space for other Eddy Arnold fans.

Enjoy your retirement Eddy, after more than 60 years of entertaining us, you deserve it.

Many thanks to my best buddy, Bill Comer, and his son Bruce who puts all this Eddy Arnold information on the Web.

God Bless you Eddy Arnold and God Bless all his fans.

Don Stewart

E-mail address: [email protected]
 
 

Don surfs the web often and has invited many people to visit this website. Bruce and I thank him very much for doing this. Please keep up the good work, Don. Bill Comer