Thomas Edd Mayfield

Infobox _ Person
name=Thomas Edward "Edd" Mayfield
nationality=American
birth_date=birth date |1926|4|12
death_date=death date and age|1958|7|7|1926|4|12
birth_place=flagicon|TexasDawn, Deaf Smith County, Texas, USA
death_place=flagicon|West VirginiaBluefield, Mercer County, West Virginia
residence=flagicon|USADimmitt, Castro County, Texas
occupation=Musician
spouse= Jo McLain Mayfield, later Jo Butler (married ca. 1948-his death)
children= Freddie Calvin Mayfield
Carl Mayfield
religion=Baptist
footnotes=(1) While his brothers, Herbert Mayfield and Smokey Mayfield, remained in West Texas, Edd Mayfield went on tour with Bill Monroe and the "Bluegrass Boys".

(2) Edd Mayfield died within a week of having been diagnosed with leukemia while he was on concert with Monroe in West Virginia.

Thomas Edd Mayfield (April 12, 1926—July 7, 1958) was a Bluegrass singer and guitarist, mostly known for being a member of the Bill Monroe and Bluegrass Boys band during the 1950s. Edd Mayfield and two of his Texas brothers, Smokey Mayfield (1924-2008) of Spearman and Herbert E. Mayfield (1920-2008) of Dimmitt, were part of the Mayfield Brothers Country band in West Texas.

Biography

Mayfield was born in Dawn in Deaf Smith County southwest of Amarillo to William Fletcher Mayfield (died 1952) and the former Penelope Drake (died 1937). The family was involved in music, rodeo, and ranching. Mayfield served in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

The Mayfield Brothers were offered a recording contract but turned it down because of the business of the family's Green Valley Ranch. In the summer of 1951, Bill Monroe's guitarist, Carter Stanley, left the band, and Monroe, who had heard of Mayfield, offered him the vacant slot as guitarist in the Bluegrass Boys. At the time he joined the Bluegrass Boys, Edd Mayfield was described as "a handsome, tought-as-barbed-wire cowpuncher, who literally grew up on a ranch, who could ride hard, lasso accurately, and literally toss and tie up a bull. . . and had the wiry strength of a gymnast.” [Google Books, "Can't You Hear Me Callin'?":http://books.google.com/books?id=PXPWBLwQopEC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=Ed+Mayfield+and+Bill+Monroe&source=web&ots=CJHKYlEu0Z&sig=_cbxLp_mIVSU5Xd2sA0MtL6m_jw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA122,M1] While he was on tour with Monroe, Mayfield died of leukemia in a hospital in Bluefield, West Virginia.Joe Carr and Allan Munde, “The Mayfield Boys”, "Hansford County Reporter-Statesman" on Internet, undated:http://www.spearmanreporter.com/newsviews/music.html]

On October 28, 1951, Mayfield made his first recordings with "Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys", but he left the group within a year and was replaced by Jimmy Martin. In 1954, when Martin had left the band, Mayfield rejoined the Bluegrass Boys. A few months later he again quit.

In early 1958, Mayfield returned to Monroe for the last time. He contracted leukemia, became ill while on the road with the band, and, within three days of being stricken, died at a hospital in Bluefield, West Virginia. He was thirty two. Mayfield was married to the former Jo McLain, since Jo Butler of Atwater, California. The couple had two sons, Freddie Calvin Mayfield (born December 28, 1949) [Net Detective, People Search] of Spearman in Hansford County, Texas, and Carl Mayfield of Phoenix. Freddie and Carl were reared in Texas by Smokey and his wife Mary K. Mayfield.

Services for Mayfield were held at the First Baptist Church in Dimmitt. Burial was in Castro County Memorial Cemetery.

Edd Mayfield recorded a total of nineteen songs with Monroe's Bluegrass Boys.

References

*"Neil V. Rosenberg, Charles K. Wolfe, "Bluegrass, Bill Monroe", Bear Family Publication, 1989.