Folk musician, instrument maker, folksong collector from northwestern North Carolina.
Proffitt was perhaps best known as the source of the Kingston Trio’s 1958 recording of
the native American ballad “Tom Dooley,” named by one scholar as “the best-known
folksong in America.”
When the New York-based folksong enthusiasts Anne and Frank Warner conducted
fieldwork in Watauga County, North Carolina, in 1939, they collected several tunes from
Proffitt, one of which was a ballad about the hanging in 1868 of a man named Tom Dula
(pronounced “Dooley” in the Appalachian dialect) in nearby Wilkes County. Proffitt had
learned the song from his father, Wiley, whose mother, Adeline Perdue, knew both Dula
and his victim, Laura Foster. Proffitt’s son, Frank, Jr., has written that his greatgrandfather learned the song directly from Dula as he lingered about his jail cell shortly
before the hanging. Frank Warner, himself a performer, dropped some verses, rearranged
others, reshaped the melody, and sang the song for several years, recording it in 1950 for
Elektra records. In 1947 the folklorist Alan Lomax published Warner’s version of the
ballad in Folk Song U.S.A., crediting Warner, but not Proffitt. It was this text that was
recorded in 1958 by the Kingston Trio. The song reached the top of the popular music
“Hit Parade” and went on to sell over three million copies, playing a major role in the
rediscovery and popularization of authentic American folk music during the late 1950s
and early 1960s. In 1962, well after the period of its greatest popularity, arrangements
were made for Proffitt to enjoy a share of the song’s royalties.
Proffitt was born in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, his family moving shortly after his
birth to the Beaver Dam section of Watauga County, a few miles away. He grew up
immersed in folk traditions, learning folksongs from his father and aunt, Nancy Prather.
The Warners sparked his interest in folk music further, and he became a dedicated
student of Appalachian musical traditions, collecting what he called “the old songs from
his people” from his neighbors and family. His family on his wife’s side was indeed a
rich source of folklore; she was Bessie Hicks, the sister of the world-famous storyteller Ray Hicks. Proffltt’s repertoire of
folksongs was prodigious; he performed Child ballads (some quite rare), broadsides, and
native American ballads; original pieces; religious tunes; and numerous lyrical songs in
his soft, relaxed baritone voice, accompanying himself with guitar, dulcimer, or banjo
played in a gende thumb-lead, two-finger up-picking style. Having also learned
instrument making from his father, Proffitt supplemented his often meager income from
tobacco farming and part-time carpentry work with the sale of his homemade dulcimers
and five-string, fretless wooden banjos.
During the last few years of his life, Proffitt became an ambassador of Appalachian
folk music, performing at numerous colleges and universities, including the University of
Chicago and the Newport and National Folk festivals, always minimizing his own
abilities, preferring to direct attention to the traditions that he championed.
William E.Lightfoot
References
Proffitt, Frank. 1962. Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina. Folk—Legacy Records. FSA 1.
——. 1962. Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs. Folkways Records FA 2360.
——. 1968. Frank Proffitt: Memorial Album. FolkLegacy Records. FSA 36.
Warner, Anne, and Frank Warner. 1973. Frank Noah Proffitt: Good Times and Hard Times on the
Beaver Dam Road. Appalachian Journal 1:162–198.