While in the Willcox area, you are invited to visit THE FRIENDS OF MARTY ROBBINS MUSEUM AND GIFT SHOP. This museum is the private collection of Juanita Buckley & her son Shawn P. Ring put together with help from Larry Schultz Willcox's Vice Mayor.
Rex Allen Jr. invited us to make the move to Willcox. With his help & help from Larry & Delcie Schultz we now have a permanent home here in Willcox.
Our goal is to keep Marty Robbins Music & Memory alive in his home state of Arizona with a yearly tribute to honor him the first Saturday in March.
Marty Robbins was born in Glendale Arizona September 26, 1925 he was a twin born five minutes before his sister Mamie Ellen Robinson. He was the son of John G. and Emma Heckle Robinson . He was the seventh of nine children born to Emma, she had two children by her first marriage. Seven with her second husband John, two sets of twins .
Marty went into the US Navy instead of graduating from High School, he was only seventeen years old, his mother had to sign papers for him. He took his basic training in San Diego California. The 2nd World War broke out while he was in and Marty saw action. He really didn’t like to talk about what happened while in the Navy with the exception of him teaching himself to play the guitar, he would entertain the troops while he was on break from all the shooting & bombing. He could always sing and most of the time he made up songs as he went.
After the Navy Marty came back to his home town of Glendale where he met his future wife, Marizona Baldwin, they were married September 28, 1948 in Parker Arizona, where his twin sister Mamie was living at the time. Ronald Carson Robinson was born July 16, 1949.
Marty had his own radio show and later TV show, if you can believe it, he was very shy in his early years of entertaining. They told him on KHAT if he didn’t do the TV show they would take him off the Air. He didn’t want that to happen so he did the TV show, most of the time looking down at the floor. He over came his shyness and became the Marty with the God given voice that made him a natural with the Ballads he wrote about the History of Arizona. His father played a harmonica, his grandfather Texas Bob Heckle was a story teller, Texas Ranger and a Medicine man. He had a great influence on Marty at an early age. Telling him about the old West as it was in Texas Bob ‘s days. Marty's grandfather died when Marty was six years old. The stories stayed in his young mind and later came out in the Western Ballets that made him the first Country Entertainer to receive a Grammy. He received two, one for El Paso, one for My Woman My Woman My Wife. Marty went on the Grand Ole Opry show in 1951. He drove home after the show only stopping for restroom & gas breaks, he was so excited about being on the Grand Ole Opry he couldn’t wait to get home to tell his wife . He became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, moving to Nashville Tennessee in January 1952. In January 1959 a daughter Janet was born. She was the apple of Marty's eye. Marty accomplished much in his life . He was the last to play at the Ryman Opry House, the first to play at the new Opry House. The first to receive a Golden Guitar Award . The first Man of The Decade Award. He received the Country Music Hall Of Fame Award October 1982, less than two months before he passed away into the Great Heavenly Music Hall of Fame