Bob Nolan
| Bob Nolan | |
|---|---|
Bob Nolan in Lights of Old Santa Fe (1944)
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Robert Clarence Nobles |
| Born |
April 13, 1908 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Died | June 16, 1980 (aged 72) Newport Beach, California, United States |
| Genres |
Western music Country music |
| Occupation(s) |
Singer-songwriter Actor |
| Years active | 1933–1949 |
| Associated acts | Sons of the Pioneers |
Bob Nolan (April 13, 1908 – June 16, 1980) was a Canadian-born American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a founding member of the Sons of the Pioneers, and composer of numerous Country music and Western music songs, including the standards "Cool Water" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds." He is generally regarded as one of the finest Western songwriters of all time. As an actor and singer he appeared in scores of Western films.
Robert Clarence Nobles was born April 13, 1908 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Harry Nobles and Flora Elizabeth Hussey Nobles. The couple separated in 1915, and Flora raised her two little boys in Winnipeg.
In the summer of 1916 Flora temporarily moved her children to her husband's parents' home in Hatfield Point, New Brunswick, but due to the machinations of his father, Bob never saw his mother again.
In the summer of 1919 Bob went to live with his aunt in Boston, Massachusetts. There he attended The Belmont School until 1921, when, at the age of thirteen, he moved to Tucson, Arizona to live with his father Harry, a United States Army officer. He attended Safford Junior High School until 1922, then transferred to Roskruge Junior High. In high school he was an average student, was a member of the Arion Club choral group, and excelled in athletics. He graduated from Tucson High School in May 1928.
On July 7, 1928, less than two months after he graduated high school, Bob Nolan married his high school sweetheart, 16-year-old Tennie Pearl Fields. Thirteen months later, daughter Roberta Irene was born to them, but the marriage foundered almost from the beginning.
After he left school, Bob Nolan drifted around the country, finding work where he could and always writing songs. He took a lifeguard job in Los Angeles in 1929. His father had changed his name to Nolan and it was as Bob Nolan that he began a career as a singer on the Chautauqua tent-show circuit and as a lifeguard in Santa Monica.
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