The Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage opened in 1997 in the deep pine timber of Panola County. Cindy Walker was a charter inductee — and her 1946 Martin guitar is still on display today.
In 1936, an 18-year-old Cindy Walker danced in the chorus at Casa Mañana in Fort Worth — and while she was there, her song played on national radio. It was the first performance that showed her what a song could do.
The Cindy Walker birthplace near Mart, Texas marks the beginning of one of the most extraordinary careers in American songwriting history. Three miles north of this small McLennan County farm town, Walker was born in July 1917.