Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie 1943, from LC

1912 - Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma. His father Charles was a cattleman, mother Nora Belle Sherman was a schooleacher who suffered from the Huntington's disease that would cause Woody's death in 1967. Although his family moved to Pampa, Texas, Woody remained in Okemah for high school and earned money by playing the harmonica.

1927 - He moved to Pampa, Texas, and joined a band as a guitarist.

1933 - He married Mary Jennings Oct. 28, raised a family of three children.

1935 - April 14 was Black Sunday, the worst day of the dust storms that turned the skies black over Pampas, Texas. Woody wrote "So Long, It's Been Good To Know You."

1937 - Woody left his family and followed Route 66 to California. In Los Angeles he played songs on KFVD, became friends with leftist newscaster Ed Robbins and actor Will Geer.

1939 - He moved to New York City and met Alan Lomax, Pete seeger, recorded songs for the Library of Congress Archive of American Folksong, including Victor P-27 and P-28, the "Dust Bowl Ballads," that were released July 1940 and were his first commercial records. He joined the Almanac Singers in New York and showed sympathy for the Communist Party, but never officially joined. He showed his sympathy for sharecroppers in his song "I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore" and for the STFU movement in the South with its song "Raggedy Raggedy" composed by John Handcox that was included by Woody in his songbooks.

1940 - On Feb. 23, Woody wrote six verses of "God Blessed America" in the Hanover House hotel near Times Square, each verse eneding with the refrain "God blessed America for me." When Moses Asch made the first recording of this song in April 1944, he changed the title to "This Land Is Your Land" and the refrain to "This land was made for you and me." This recording still had the original 4th and 6th verses. The song was written in protest to Irving Berlin's song "God Bless America" that was sung by Kate Smith on her CBS radio program Nov. 11, 1938. Woody wrote his song as a more accurate description of America than Irving Berlin's. Guthrie wrote about 'dust clouds rolling" and the "great high wall" of Private Property" and "By the relief office I saw my people As they stood hungry" and he did not invoke God as a solution to America's dangers.

1940 - In June, FDR signed the Alien Registration Act, or Smith Act, to restrict war protest.

1941 - Woody with the Almanac Singers on their landmark national tour, sang for the NMU in Cleveland and San Francisco. Woody sang for the Women's Auxiliary of the NMU in Dec. The National Maritime Union (NMU) was founded in May 1937 by merchant seaman Joe Curran as an alternative to the International Seamen's Union (ISU) affiliated with the AFL; and in 1937 the NMU joined the CIO.

1941 - He was hired by Department of the Interior to write songs promoting the Bonneville Power Administration . He was investigated by the FBI.

1942 - He served as a merchant seaman with his friend Cisco Houston, wrote anti-Hitler songs and labeled his guitar "This Machine Kills Fascists."

1943 - Selective Service in the spring granted exemption to merchant seamen in recognition of their important work manning the Liberty ships. In the summer, Woody became a merchant seaman with his friends Cisco Houston and Jimmy Longhi, and served on three ships. He was a messman on his third ship, the Sea Porpoise. His first two ships were sunk by torpedo and underwater mine. During his year in the merchant marine, Woody composed "Talking Merchant Marine" and "S.S. NMU"

1943 - He published his autobiography Bound for Glory, ( made into the 1976 feature film starring David Carradine).

1944 - In Dec., Woody began his weekly 15-minute radio show on WNEW in New York with "This Land" as its theme song.

1945 - Woody modified the Almanac Singers' song "Union Train" with new lyrics in support of FDR and the war effort, and critical of Charles Lindbergh and Martin Dies and John L. Lewis. In Dec., he created the organization People's Songs with Pete Seeger and Lead Belly to help the union movement, and formed People's Artists as a booking agency to provide singers for union meetings.

1946 - In March, he played for the UE strike in Pittsburgh against Westinghouse, and wrote two songs for this strike.

1946 - After divorcing his first wife, he married Marjorie Greenblatt Mazia, had four children including Arlo Guthrie.

1947 - In June, Congress passes the Taft-Hartley Act that prohibited the closed shop and union contributions to political campaigns, and required union officers to sign loyalty oaths declaring they were not members of the Communist Party. The UAW and the NMU purged communists from their ranks. In Dec., Woody supported the Food, Tobacco, and Allied Workers (FTA) strike in Winston-Salem NC, but the union meetings were segregated and the white leaders did not apporved Woody's new verse added to "You Gotta Go Down and Join the Union" that encouraged racial unity:

All colors of hands gonna work together
All colors of eyes gonna laugh and shine
All colors of feet gonna dance together
When I bring my CIO to Caroline, Caroline

1948 - Woody supported Henry Wallace and wrote "Go Down and See" and "The Farmer-Labor Train"

1952 - His disease began to limit his musical abilities, but since 1932 he had written more than a thousand songs.

1955 - After divorcing his second wife, he married Anneke Van Kirk, had one child, and at her urging he entered the hospital.

1959 - Young Bob Dylan visited Woody in the hospital and dedicated his "Song to Woody" as he introduced folk and protest into rock and roll in the 1960s.

1961 - The New Christy Minstrels recorded Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land"

1967 - He died Oct. 3 at Creedmore State Hospital in Queens, New York.

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revised 3/1/07 by Schoenherr | Songs