If your like me, you really enjoy John Hartford's CD "Hamilton Ironworks. In this album he takes us down a musical memory lane of his early years in Missouri playing with Gene and Cecil Goforth, the Dillards, Leo Persinger, and so forth. A name that comes up in his commentary while playing, is that of Roy Wooliver who apparently had a huge influence on many of the Missouri fiddlers that we are more familiar with. Gene Goforth also mentions him on his CD "Eminence Breakdown" which Hartford helped produce.
I always wondered what happened to this character? He is described as a crosseyed drunken thief who never owned a fiddle yet was a master player. He would sleep in barns of friends and drift around Missouri.
I assumed he was a lost soul that drifted into oblivion leaving no trace yet a online search revealed that he was from Dent County Missouri near Salem where the Wooliver family was from and still remain. Roy seems to have returned home to his family in later years and lived with them until his death in 1964. He is buried at the Barton Cemetary near Buick Mo.
My source is a forum called "Mudcat Cafe" in which this information is posted by family members.
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