[Deathwatch] Marion F. "Marty" Garner, musician, 77

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

May 24, 2004
`Marty' Garner, 77, bass player, toured with country icons
By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Marion F. "Marty" Garner, a bass player who performed with many country
musicians including Hank Williams Sr., Tex Ritter, Red Foley and Patsy
Cline, died Wednesday of cancer. He was 77.

The Arkansas native, given a harmonica by an uncle, had his own radio
music program there when he was just 10.

"He'd run to the station in the morning and do his show and run home
and get ready for school," said his brother William Garner of
Texarkana.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Marion Garner was asked
to play bass with the house band in the early 1960s during the Big D
Jamboree at Dallas' Sportatorium Arena.

The Jamboree, a weekly country music venue that featured regional and
national musicians, thrived from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Garner later toured with Cline, Ritter and Foley. He also performed
with Hank Williams Jr., Willie Nelson and Ken Curtis before the
latter's Gunsmoke TV days.

"My dad's whole life was music," said son Michael Garner of La Porte.

Foley, known for his hit Peace in the Valley, asked Marion Garner to
play with him at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, but Garner turned him
down.

"He said, `Where will I stay? I don't know anyone there,' " said
daughter Marion Grant of Pasadena.

Garner never played at the Opry, but he once joked that his wish was to
be buried center stage there.

He continued to play around Dallas and Fort Worth, but his career
slowed after his second marriage.

In 1996, at the funeral of his uncle, Garner played the first song he
learned on the same harmonica the uncle had given him years before.

Afterward, he placed the harmonica in his uncle's pocket before burial.


Garner moved to Houston when he married his second wife, Yvonne
Standley, in 1965. They had three children, and Garner had three from
his first marriage, said Standley, who now lives in Pasadena.

Garner worked as a parts employee for several Houston-area Ford
dealerships.

He moved to North Carolina after he married his third wife and recently
moved back to Texas after her death.

Garner is also survived by another daughter, Denise Garner of Porter;
two other sons, David Garner of Dallas and Stephen Garner of Plano, and
another brother, Charles Garner of Foreman, Ark.

Services begin at noon today in American Heritage chapel, 10710
Veterans Memorial Drive.