Ted Cline

By the time he was eleven, he was sneaking downstairs to play his older brother, Kevin’s, guitar. Their mama, Wilda Clemens Cline, had bought a guitar for Kevin at Barnes Music Store in nearby Leavenworth, Kansas, and was paying for Kevin’s guitar lessons. Wilda’s Clemens side is believed to be related to the novelist, humorist and ultimate Missourian, Samuel Langhorn Clemens a/k/a Mark Twain. Within a year or two, Ted and Kevin had recorded a “45.” On the “A” side was Hank Senior’s “A Mansion on the Hill” with a “B” side of “Remember Me,” written by Scottie Wiseman and famously recorded by Willie Nelson. Ted and Kevin soon began performing at the Union Mill Opry outside of Edgerton, Missouri. Owned by Gini and Buddie Boswell, the Opry on their farm could seat 6oo people and provided camping for family listeners. There, Ted opened for the likes of Dolly Parton, Ernest Tubbs, Johnny Rodriguez, Hank Thompson, the Wilburn Brothers and countless others. Ted remembers opening for Ernest Tubbs, who’d taking a liking to the young Cline brothers, and Mr. Tubbs gave them a guided tour of his bus.