“WHAT WE HAVE DONE FOR OURSELVES ALONE DIES WITH US;
WHAT WE HAVE DONE FOR OTHERS AND THE WORLD REMAINS
AND IS IMMORTAL.”
Albert Pike
As I sit here I have a tear in my eye. I am listening to my friend Jim Farrell doing his radio show FULL GALLUP on his internet radio station TRUCKERS RADIO USA. Why am I crying? Jim was so full of life and you can hear it in his voice. Jim was always so full of energy and positive energy, he always put me in a good mood. I love his stories of growing up in Nashville and literally growing up in the country and western music industry. We could literally talk for hours and never get finished.
I was the first vice-president of the Western Music Association – Kansas Chapter when Ray Ammorine and Johnny Western formed the chapter years ago. When I needed to step down because I could not keep up with the job, Jim stepped up and took the position. He was the perfect person for the job. Jim could get on a soap box and talk for hours on how Western Music needed to head into the future and keep the genre growing and popular. He took his ideas to the IWMA and was helping the artists work in that direction.
I first met Jim backstage at the Orpheum Theater in Wichita. I was on the show bill doing country and cowboy poetry and Jim had just come to town to play with a new group the Prairie Rose Wranglers at the new Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper near Benton. I was one of the first to welcome him to Kansas. Jim may have been from Nashville and called himself Tennessee Jim, but he became a true Kansan and loved our state.
Jim was a charter member of the Kansas Chapter of the Western Music Association. I was a frequent attendee at the Prairie Rose. Jim and the whole group became good friends. The Diamond W Wranglers came out and did a backyard concert at our Bunkhouse B&B. They also came and played at my 60th birthday. The last time I was able to go to the IWMA Festival in Albuquerque, NM Jim and Jeff Davidson split a room with me. When we headed back home Jim drove me back to Medicine Lodge. I was worn out starting to have medical issues and Jim was a life saver taking the wheel.
There were a lot of concerts that I went to and I never got tired hearing the Wranglers songs. Jim produced my CD in his studio and co-wrote my song Dance at the Grange. He took a clodhopper and made me sound pretty good. Jim made a lot of people sound good over the years.
Jim wrote wonderful songs about Kansas. Jim and Martha took hold of an idea that I had to do a stage presentation celebrating the Sesquicentennial of Kansas. Bringing in a bunch of Kansas musicians KANSAS-HOME ON THE RANGE was performed at the Hutchinson Fox Theater. It was such a success that we had to bring the show to Wichita at Century II.
After Jim came to Kansas he met Martha and they soon became married as well as business partners. Martha Slater Farrell owned First Generation Video. They brought both of their businesses to the little building in Towanda. A perfect match all the way around. They were given the opportunity to become partners with Rex Allen Jr. with Truckers Radio USA. Several of the programs on Truckers Radio are Kansas artists. On Saturday evenings you can listen to recordings of the Grand Ole Opry. Jim had the opportunity to digitize the shows and I love listening to the Opry as it was when it was real country-western and comedy was still part of it.
Why am I sitting here balling like a baby? Jim had been fighting health problems. He was going to have to start playing his guitar converted to a dobro because he could not chord anymore. Then Jim had to fight a form of leukemia. early fall he started having a lot of congestion, then pneumonia. He could not seem to get over his congestion. He had taken both shots and the booster for Covid. They tested him and after a lot of pain they decided that he did have the virus. Then right in the middle they diagnosed multiple myialomia.
Jim suffered terribly. He was in ICU more than once. He would start to improve then take a turn for the worse. Jim passed away with Martha holding his hand. Several friends came to say goodbye and sing for him. Jim now is playing his biggest gig. We are left to remember. Jim did so much for so many people. I am guessing that the memorial will last a long time.
So long pard. Keep watching your back trail, I will be following up.
