101-year-old local fiddler dancing into hall of fame Friday

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Photo: Courtesy of Violet Hensley
Hensley appeared on The Art Linkletter Show, circa 1970.

Yellville resident Violet Hensley has played at the Grand Ole Opry twice, performed at Silver Dollar City for a half century, has appeared on “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Captain Kangaroo” and been interviewed by folks like Charles Kuralt and Regis Philbin. On Friday evening, the 101-year-old fiddle maker and musician is set to be inducted into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame in Tulsa.

Headlining the National Fiddler Hall of Fame Gala and Induction Ceremony will be 15-time Grammy-award winner Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder.

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture says Hensley is known as the “Whittling Fiddler,” the “Stradivarius of the Ozarks” or more simply the “Fiddler Maker.”

The Tulsa World newspaper says with the induction, Hensley is going to be acknowledged as one of the best to ever fiddled around. Her fiddling is her second act, not beginning until she was a 46-year-old mother of 10.

Daughter Sandra Flagg told the Tulsa World “none of us” would have thought “this” life was possible for their mother. Daughter Lewonna Nelson described their background as “barefoot in the woods.”

Flagg says, “We were in the backwoods of Arkansas. Podunk. Way back. You would have never believed at any point that we would be traveling all across the U.S. or she would be playing the fiddle in front of thousands and thousands. We went to Washington, D.C., and played there for 50,000 people. And, from Podunk, Arkansas, to that, it doesn’t register.”

Hensley was born in 1916. On the subject of growing up poor, Hensley said flies had to bring their own food to her house just to have something to eat. She said she didn’t live in a home with running water until she was in her 40s.

She says, “We had running water, but it was about 100 yards from the house — a cold spring.”

Hensley’s father carved fiddles that he swapped for items proving useful for a farm family–wagon, shotgun and a milk cow.

Hensley learned from her father how to play and carve a fiddle. She started playing at local square dances when she was 13 and carved her first fiddle when she was 15.

Content to be a farm girl who made her living from the dirt, Hensley’s life changed after she took part in a talent contest at Yellville’s annual Turkey Trot Festival in 1962. A friend had to persuade her to get on stage.

Hensley didn’t win, but she attracted the attention of folk singer Jimmy Driftwood, and she began playing at his venue in Mountain View. Exposure led to opportunity. She got an invitation from Silver Dollar City, where she made fiddles and became an entertainer.

Hensley made a recent visit to Tulsa to drum up publicity for the 2018 National Fiddler Hall of Fame Gala and Induction Ceremony. She participated in a series of interviews and maybe even showed off a little. She played a fiddle over her head. She danced when Jana Jae, who was inducted in the National Fiddler Hall of Fame in 2015, picked up fiddle No. 4 and started playing. She playfully engaged interviewers with feats of strength, including a killer handshake,
and with stories about her mule, Cricket.

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