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Tillman Ben Franks, Sr. (September 29, 1920 – October 26, 2006), was an American double bass and songwriter and the manager for a number of country music artists including Johnny Horton, David Houston, Webb Pierce, Claude King, and the Carlisles.
Franks served in the United States Army during World War II, after which he married the former Virginia Helen Suber. Virginia was subsequently reared in two Shreveport and like her husband graduated from C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport. She became an with speciality in oil paintings, a seamstress, and sang with her husband of sixty years and their son, Tillman Franks, Jr. The Franks had two sons and two daughters.
In 1955, as Johnny Horton's manager, he switched the budding singer from Mercury Records to Columbia Records. He was the sole writer of Horton's first chart-topper single, 1959's "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)". He and Horton were co-composers of "Honky Tonk Man", Horton's 1956 hit record, that Dwight Yoakam also recorded as his first single. During 1960, Franks co-wrote with Horton the successful singles "Sink the Bismark" and "North to Alaska". The Legendary Tillman Franks Franks was injured in the head and internally as well in the automobile accident on November 5, 1960, in Milano in Milam County in East Texas, which resulted in the death of Johnny Horton and the eventual loss of a leg by a third musician, Tommy Tomlinson.
Franks' contribution to rock and roll music has been recognized by his induction into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Hall of Fame, and his induction in 2003 into the Northwest Louisiana Walk of Stars where his feet and hand impressions are in concrete beside other talents, such as Elvis Presley, Terry Bradshaw, Kix Brooks, David Toms, and Franks' longtime friend Claude King. The "Walk of Stars" is located under the Shreveport side of Texas Street Bridge, officially known as the Long–Allen Bridge (Shreveport) that spans the Red River to Bossier City.
Tillman Franks helped to coin the phrase "The Magic Circle," which he describes in his autobiography as: "an area 50-miles in radius from downtown Shreveport from which many kinds of music evolved. I was lucky to have lived my life in The Magic Circle."
Franks died in the fall of 2006 at the age of eighty-six. His son, the Reverend Watson Franks, preached the funeral.
In 2019, KEEL Radio recalled Franks as "a legend that should be remembered for all the contributions not only to Shreveport's musical history but to rock and country."
Franks' out-of-print autobiography entitled Tillman Franks: I Was There When It Happened is still in demand by his remaining fans.
Legacy
On July 11, 1996, Shreveport observed "Tillman Franks Day", sponsored by KWKH.
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Categories: 1920 Births, 2006 Deaths, American Double-bassists, American Male Double-bassists, American Country Songwriters, American Male Songwriters, American Talent Agents, People From Stamps, Arkansas, Writers From Shreveport, Louisiana, C. E. Byrd High School Alumni, Musicians From Shreveport, Louisiana, Starday Records Artists, United States Army Personnel Of World War Ii, United States Army Soldiers, Songwriters From Louisiana, Songwriters From Arkansas, 20th-century American Double-bassists, 20th-century American Male Musicians, 20th-century American Songwriters
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