Thus, Central Texans decades ago who reveled in the music of country king Roy Acuff, coal miners’ daughters Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle, or who longed to hear Ernest Tubb sing “Waltz Across Texas” could play their radios or records, or visit livestock shows or big city nightclubs.
Until they started headlining packed-house performances at one-night charity benefits in the Milano High School gymnasium in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Then, those fortunate enough to hold tickets got to see these Country Music Hall of Famers in person.
Since the WPA completed the limestone rock building in 1940, the Milano High School gym has been the town’s center of gravity for school and community events. In addition to the usual gatherings for graduation ceremonies, baccalaureate services, jamborees, school plays, community Christmas programs, pep rallies, basketball games and fall festivals, the building has also served as a meeting place for performances that were purely for entertainment. During school hours, children have been amused by high school and college stage bands, a magician, a juggler, unicyclist and a man who used his wooden leg as part of the act.
Regulars to the Milano gym were the zany Zarlingtons who entertained schoolchildren with their magic tricks, jokes and music.
The most memorable shows were those featuring country music legends. Likely these stars were not intimidated in the least by performing in the Milano High School gymnasium/auditorium - with its interior suited for basketball and volleyball tournaments rather than off-Nashville musical shows - because most had made the circuit of outback performing arts venues on their way up the ladder of fame.
The story behind Roy Acuff’s appearance on the Milano High School stage not only belongs in his biography, but in the family history chronicles of Garland and Jeannie Westbrook. Westbrook, who spent nearly 25 years in the country music business under the professional handle Billy Western, made Billboard Magazine’s Top 100 list with the song he recorded titled “His and Hers.” Western made friends in the business, and when he went into the promotions’ angle of show biz, invited these friends to perform at benefits in Milano. Western said in a 1979 interview he performed with Ernest Tubb more than any other country music star in Nashville.
Acuff was the biggest performer to appear in Milano, said Gary Westbrook, the Westbrooks’ oldest son, who is director of the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District in Milano. Westbrook missed nearly two weeks of school during his senior year when the family accompanied Acuff on his final Texas tour. The Milano gym was packed to capacity for Acuff’s show.
“Mr. Acuff hadn’t traveled in 20 years, and he promised Daddy if he ever wanted to do a tour again, he would call Daddy, “Westbrook said.
Acuff was a man of his word. In late 1974 and early 1975, Acuff and his band, the original Smokey Mountain Boys, starred in eight shows across Texas and also performed in Arkansas.
Gary Westbrook was in junior high school when Loretta Lynn and Ernest Tubb performed several times in Milano.
Loretta Lynn introduced her younger sister, Brenda, to Milano audiences a year before she chose the professional name Crystal Gayle and launched a career that skyrocketed. Brenda Gayle Webb sang one song to the Milano audience.
Other country music icons to perform in Milano were Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Kitty Wells, Bill Monroe - one of the biggest blue grass bands of the 1970s - Porter Wagoner, Country Johnny Mathis, comedian Jerry Clower, and the Georgia Bluegrass Boys. Marty Robbins may have played in Milano, Westbrook said.
“I want to say Johnny Horton performed here not long before he died,” Westbrook said. “I am just going with conversations I had with Daddy and Mama.”
Horton, en route home from a performance in Austin on Nov. 5, 1960, was killed on the railroad overpass on U.S. Highway 79 in Milano in a head-on collision with a drunken college student. Horton’s biography stated the singer had been haunted with images of his death in an auto accident caused by a drunken driver.
Headliners of the ’70s included The Beverly Hillbillies star Donna Douglas, who was launching a singing career with the group Deer Creek, Merle Travis of “Sixteen Tons” fame, and some members of “the whole Hee-Haw Gang”: Junior Samples, Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl and Lulu Roman.
On the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 18, 1971, Junior Samples was lounging in the Westbrooks’ living room watching the Texas-UCLA football game, Gary Westbrook recalled.
“We ate an early supper, and caught the first part of ‘Hee-Haw’,” Westbrook said. “Junior Samples was mesmerized. He couldn’t believe he was watching himself on TV. Of course, ‘Hee-Haw’ was taped. Then we went up to the high school and did the show. Junior Samples was exactly what you saw on TV, just a real nice guy. He dressed like that, didn’t matter whether he was on stage or TV, or at his house eating chicken.”
Westbrook does not remember Buck Owens performing at Milano, but Roy Clark might have because Roy and Billy Western performed together. Billy Western also sang with George Jones, but Gary Westbrook does not remember him appearing in Milano.
The Singin’ Cowboy Tex Ritter was the star of the show in 1967 at a junior class benefit, said James Walker who graduated in 1968.
“I don’t actually remember seeing him sing, although I likely did, but I do remember seeing him up close in the lunchroom at a fundraiser meal being served in conjunction with the event,” Walker said.
“What sticks out in my mind is the fact that he had a flashy ring on most, if not all, fingers,” Walker said.
John M. Williams, also in the class of ’68, remembers the Singing Cowboy to be gentlemanly: “Tex walked out of the gym door and almost ran into me. He apologized and talked to me for a minute.”
Milano’s Grand Ole Opry days began to wane when country music changed, and either the big stars of yesteryear faded away, or the headliners of the1980s demanded more money than small places like Milano could pay, Westbrook said.
The charities that the shows would benefit got to keep 100 percent of advanced ticket sales; the stars banked gate receipts, Westbrook said. Upcoming and stars of the ’80s wanted more of the proceeds.
Garland Westbrook began bringing in gospel music groups, especially the Florida Boys who have been regulars in Milano for years.
