Vernon Dalhart

Vernon Dalhart (6 April 1883 - 14 September 1948) was a popular United States singer and songwriter of the early decades of the 20th century. He is a major influence in the field of Country Music.

Dalhart was born Marion Try Slaughter in Marion County, Jefferson, Texas. He took his stage-name from two towns, Vernon and Dalhart in Texas, between which he punched cattle in the 1890's. (Decades later, Conway Twitty would derive his stage name through the same method.) Dalhart's father, Robert Marion Slaughter was killed in a fight with his brother-in-law, Bob Castleberry, when Vernon was age 10.

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