From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Jun 15, 2002  2:30 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Leon Payne
 
LEON PAYNE (By Shaun Mather)

Born Leon Roger Payne, 15 June 1917, Alba, Texas
Died 11 September 1969, San Antonio, Texas

The multi talented singer, songwriter and guitarist was born blind and spent
his childhood at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin, Texas. By 1935
he was playing on local radio and three years later joined Bob Wills' Texas
Playboys for whom he played intermittently for the remainder of his career.
He cut his first solo recordings in 1939 and started touring Texas as The
Texas Blind Hitchhiker. Ten years later he formed the Lone Star Buddies
and began appearing on such notable programs as the Grand Old Opry, the
Louisiana Hayride and the Big D Jamboree.

He hit the big time in 1949 with a song he wrote for his wife, I Love You
Because (# 1 country). But it was as a writer that he proved most prolific
with successes including: George Morgan (Cry-Baby Heart), Hank Williams
(Lost Highway, They'll Never Take Her Love From Me), Hank Snow (For Now
And Always) and Carl Smith (More Than Anything Else In The World and
Doorstep To Heaven). Jim Reeves had posthumous hits with three Payne
compositions : I Love you Because, Blue Side Of Lonesome and I Heard
A Heart Break Last Night.

From a rock 'n' roll viewpoint, Payne cut a rockabilly single That Ain't It
as Rock Rogers and Elvis cut I Love You Because during his legendary
tenure at Sun Records. Payne suffered his first heart attack in the mid-60's
before his fatal one on September 11, 1969.

Recommended listening:
I Love You Because - Bear Family