Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933), known as "The Mississippi Blue Yodeler" and "The Singing Brakeman," was the first nationally-known country music star. He influenced many later performers from Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb to Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard. Rodgers was the first musician to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Born in Meridian, Mississippi, on September 8, 1897, Rodgers grew up in hard times. He was the third son of Aaron Rodgers, a maintenance-of-way railroad foreman for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. His mother died when he was four and Rodgers went to live with his mother's sister, a former teacher who had degrees in music and English. She introduced him to many kinds of music, including vaudeville, pop, and dance hall ditties. He was a wild boy and, when he returned to his father in 1912, he hung out in pool halls and seedy bars, though never got into...