13 Facts About Rex Griffin

Alsie "Rex" Griffin was an American country musician and songwriter.

Rex Griffin grew up on a farm and received little schooling, eventually finding work in the factory where his father worked as a teenager.

Rex Griffin played harmonica initially, but picked up guitar soon after, playing locally in a style heavily influenced by Jimmie Rodgers.

Rex Griffin recorded alone the following year for Decca, with one of the songs being his own composition, "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby".

Rex Griffin found some success in the latter part of the decade, and recorded his biggest hit, "The Last Letter", in 1937.

Gene Sullivan and Bob Crosby covered Rex Griffin-penned songs in the 1930s.

Rex Griffin recorded for Decca through 1939, after which time he was dropped due to slacking record sales.

Rex Griffin rejoined the band of Billie Walker and Her Texas Cowboys in 1940, having previously played with them in the middle of the 1930s.

Rex Griffin played with his own Melody Boys in Alabama not long after, which featured musicians, Vernon "Toby" Reese, Chester Studdard and Ray "Kemo" Head who later played with Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours.

Rex Griffin sold many of his songs with no credit or recognition and collaborated on many without recognition.

Rex Griffin later returned to Dallas and worked as a songwriter, penning tunes for Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, and Red Foley.

Rex Griffin contracted tuberculosis in the middle of the 1950s, and died near the end of the decade in New Orleans.

Rex Griffin was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.