RED RECTOR

• Originally from Marshall, North Carolina.
• Real name: William Eugene Rector.
• One of first mandolin players in bluegrass to have a style distinguishable from Bill Monroe’s.
• Began his career in the early 40’s playing mandolin with the Morris Brothers, Johnnie and Jack, and Charlie Monroe.
• Performed and recorded for many years in a duo with his cousin Fred E. Smith (“Red and Fred”).
• 1950’s, joined Carl Story’s Rambling Mountaineers and sang lead when Carl recorded his best-known Mercury and Columbia albums.
• Also worked and recorded with Reno and Smiley, Ramona and Grandpa Jones, Jethro Burns, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Family, Norman Blake, Bill Clifton, John Hartford, many others.
• 1990, died at the age of 60.