Fess Parker died he was 85

Fess Parker, whose star-making portrayal of frontiersman Davy Crockett on television in the mid-1950s made him a hero to millions of young baby boomers and spurred a nationwide run on coonskin caps, Parker died he was 85.

Parker, who played another pioneer American hero on television's "Daniel Boone" in the 1960s before
becoming a successful Santa Barbara hotel developer and Santa Ynez Valley winery owner, died of complications from old age at his home near the winery, said family spokeswoman Sao Anash.







In Tennessee, the series took on special meaning. Crockett grew up in East Tennessee, and "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" made it into many Nashville homes with its beloved lines: Born on a mountain top in Tennessee, Greenest state in the land of the free... Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded one of three popular versions of the song. A used copy of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" even made it into our home back in the days of the record player, compliments of an older cousin.

After playing Davy Crockett, Fess Parker donned his coonskin cap again to play neighboring Kentucky's heroic Christian frontiersman and hunter Daniel Boone from 1964 to 1970 in the somewhat faith-based series of the same name. There is little doubt that Boone spent time in Tennessee. A tree in Washington County, Tennessee reads "D. Boon Cilled a. Bar [killed a bear] on [this] tree in the year 1760."
The Daniel Boone series co-starred actor and singer Ed Ames--whose Christmas songs are perennial radio favorites--as Boone's Indian friend, Mingo, for the first four seasons. Then Country-Western singer Jimmy Dean, whose first big hit (recorded in Nashville) was 1961's "Big Bad John," became Parker's sidekick, Josh Clements, from 1968 to 1970.
According to The American Christian Hall of Fame, Daniel Boone wrote in 1816: "The religion I have is to love and fear God, believe in Jesus Christ, do all the good to my neighbor, and myself that I can, do as little harm as I can help, and trust on God's mercy for the rest."
Although he starred in other shows and movies, Fess Parker will always be remembered for his roles as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. He did much to popularize these early Tennessee and Kentucky frontiersmen and to make them part of America's pop culture in the 1950s and 1960s and even to this day through reruns and DVDs.

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