Boxcar Willie

AKA:

America's Favorite Hobo

Birth Name:

Lecil Travis Martin

Birth Date:

September 1, 1931

Birth Place:

Ovilla, Texas

Death Date:

April 12, 1999

Place of Death:

3454 W 76 Country Blvd #76, Branson, Missouri

Age:

Cause of Death:

Leukemia

Cemetery Name:

Ozark Memorial Park Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Music

Perhaps the most successful invented character in the history of country music, Boxcar Willie was an American country music singer and songwriter who sang in the "old-time hobo" music style, complete with dirty face, overalls, and a floppy hat. "Boxcar Willie" was originally a character in a ballad he wrote, but he later adopted it as his own stage name. Much of Boxcar Willie's early notoriety came from a Gong Show appearance and roles in television commercials for LP compilations, namely the multi-platinum album King of the Road. And like Jimmie Rodgers before him, Martin really did grow up around trains and wrote and sang about trains. Lots and lots of trains.

Fun Fact

Boxcar Willie might be gone but his son, Larry Martin, is based in Taney County and performs as Boxcar Willie Jr.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Ozark Memorial Park Cemetery

1638 E State Highway 76

Branson, Missouri, 65616

USA

North America

Grave Location:

Martin Family Plot

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery at the intersection of Highway 76 and Spring Meadow Parkway drive straight ahead, through the roundabout and to the end of the cemetery. Take a left and then an immediate left and count 20 spaces (monuments and blank graves) on your left and in the third row from the road (behind Klein and Loyd monuments) is the final resting place of Boxcar Willie under the Martin monument.