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Daisy thought perhaps the charismatic boy
would become a successful businessman himself
one day, like his namesake, Mr. Prather. Better
yet, she hoped he might become a minister. But
Ferland was drawn to music at an early age,
thanks to his mother’s brother, Clyde Wilson,
who was only eleven years older than Ferlin and
served as his first musical mentor.
“My Uncle
Clyde, he picked a guitar and sang a few songs,”
Ferlin remembered.
“He taught me how to play
the guitar when I was six or eight years old -
learned to play a couple chords.”
Husky often
told the story that his mother traded a hen to a
neighbor in exchange for an old guitar when he
was around nine years old. When the hen failed
to produce any eggs, the neighbor retrieved the
guitar. By that Christmas, however, Ferlin
received another guitar which became his near-
constant companion.
Ferlin (kneeling, bottom left) with his class at Hickory Grove Elementary School.
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