For anyone reading this who might not be from the De Leon area and has never heard of Victor, Texas, relax.  Victor at one time was one of those country crossroads where farmers gathered, bought the most basic of supplies and attended church. Located a few miles north of De Leon in Erath County, it is very near the site of Fort Shirley and the Flat Creek Community.  It was also the birthplace of Winston Lee Moore better known as Slim Willet. 

     In 1953 Perry Como recorded a song penned by Moore and it soon rose to the top of the recording charts.  Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes sold more a million copies and more than 100 bands and singers including Ray Price, recorded the song propelling it into the elite company of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, Hogie Carmichael’s Stardust and Mel Torme’s Christmas Song as one of the most recorded songs in history.  Moore was posthumously named to the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in January 1996.

     On December 1, 1919 Winston Lee Moore was born in Victor.  The family remained there until 1935 when they moved to Clyde, Texas.  Moore attended Clyde High School and after graduation that same year, left home to join a carnival as a prize fighter at $5 a bout. He married Jimmie Crenshaw in Clyde on August 20, 1938.   He joined the army during World War II but was discharged because of an allergic reaction to castor beans.  In 1947, he entered Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene majoring in journalism and minoring in speech and education.  He completed his degree in only 31 months.

     It was at Hardin-Simmons that Moore began his variety of careers.  He was the feature editor of The Brand, HSU’s newspaper, was active in the dramatics department and was the student manager and first on-air personality of KHSU, the campus radio station. Even with all this, a wife and a ten year old son he completed his degree in 31 months.  And, oh yes, he also wrote his first song and became Slim Willet in his spare time. 

   Some say that first song was Pinball Millionaire which he penned at Doc’s Drug Store near the campus.  Others claim his first song was Living On the GI Bill.

  The name Slim Willet was originated by Moore as a character name when he sang for a chapel program at HSU.   The “Slim” was said to be indicative of the fact that he was stylishly stout.  The last name Willet came from a funny paper strip called “Out Our Way” (other reports say it was from a strip in the Abilene Reporter-News called “The Willets”).  From then on, everyone called him Slim.

            After Willet finished school he joined radio station KRBC in Abilene as a DJ.    He was noted for his entertaining ad-lib commercials that could go on for several minutes. When television arrived in Abilene Willet pioneered a music variety show which featured the Starlight Sisters and Shorty Underwood and Brushcutters. That show lasted for more than three years, but it was his radio show that Abilene followed most.  As late as 1958 over 50% of the Abilene listening audience tuned into his show (then on KNIT) between 1 and 3 each weekday afternoon.   After 15 years with other Abilene radio stations, he became general manager of KCAD in June 1964 and owned the station when he passed away in 1966. 

    Even though he studied speech at HSU, he used his De Leon twang in radio and television.  Described as sounding like a cross between Andy Griffith and Tennessee Ernie Ford, he played his country background to the hilt.  He would refer to himself as “Little ole Slim” and say things like “it’s the best thang in the world fer me when I’m all eat up with s’th’n.” or “I can’t do nuthin’ very good” and”I cain’t sang a lick,or play the geetar any better’n I could at 13.”

     But with all his radio and television successes, it was his prolific song writing ability that earned him the most fame--and money.  Pinball Millionaire garnered him only about $300 but when Don’t Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes hit the charts, he received over $230,000, an enormous sum in the early 50’s.   Perry Como received a gold record for his recording of the song for RCA and Willet appeared on his show.  

     Moore indicate that he wrote the song one night when he was playing his guitar and “thinking about a lonesome GI over in Korea and what he’d sing to his sweetheart.”  His wife Jimmie told this version of how the song came to be.  “Slim would sit on the bed and plunk the guitar.  The Odis Claxtons lived next door (in Abilene).   She was really into Eastern Star.  She’d go to meetings every so often, in those fancy nightgowns.  I’ll never forget when Slim jumped up one night as she was walking up her driveway in that fancy gown, with the stars out and all.

     Slim rushed out of the house and met her in her driveway. ‘Mrs. Claxton, let me sing my new song for you.’  He did, right there in the drive, playing his guitar.  She was the first person to ever hear it.”

     Slim recorded his own song and it sold pretty well.  Skeeter Davis was one of the first country artist to record “Stars.”   The original manuscript is in the Library of Congress.

    He had numerous regional hits such as I’m a Tool Pusher from Snyder and Love’s Prison and Hadacol Corners and they got lots of play in west Texas.

      In the early 50’s he became a regional promoter of the Big State Jamboree that was held regularly at the old Fair Park Auditorium in Abilene.  He brought in Slim Whitman, Cal Smith, George Morgan, Hank Locklin, Johnny Horton and Ray Price to entertain.  He eventually received well into four figures monthly for his radio show, had his own publishing company (Slim Willet Songs), and his own record label (Winston),

      Moore brought Elvis to Abilene for his first appearance in that city and appeared with Elvis on July 4, 1955 in Moore’s hometown of De Leon at the Battle of Songs.

      He suffered a heart attack on June 27, 1966 and died in Hendrick Memorial Hospital in Abilene on July 1 at the age of 46.  He is buried in the Victor Cemetery north of De Leon.  He had two sons Ted and Tim.

    About ten years before his death, he took up painting using woodwork paint and a 10 cent brush.  Gallery owner Gaiter Browning of New Mexico, called a painting of Slim’s boyhood home near De Leon “the best primitive I ever saw.”

Winston Moore was the nephew of O.H. Moore.

Material taken directly from George Dolan’s This is West Texas, Nov. 18, 1958 Fort Worth Star Telegram; Slim Fit article in the Abilene Reporter-News December 24, 1995; and article on his death in the Reporter-News July 1, 1966. 

Slim Willet

aka Slim Willet

Below:  Slim Willet (right) on the set of his weekly TV show on KRBC T.V.  On the left are the Starlight Sisters Mary, Tennie and Anne.  To their right is Shorty Underwood (fiddle) and the Brushcutters.  Photo from the Abilene Reporter-News.

Jimmie Moore with a copy of the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame plaque which hangs in Nashville.

Winston Lee Moore aka Slim Willet

 

Below:  Willet with two of the Starlight Sisters, Mary on the left and Teenie on the right.  

Photos: Abilene Reporter-News