Dumas Walker's Store

Dumas Walker's Store. .

"Let's all go, down to Dumas Walker We'll get a slaw burger, fries and a bottle of Ski Bring it on out to my baby and me."

, In 1990, the Kentucky Headhunters, a Southern rock band from Edmonton, Kentucky, scored their second hit, "Dumas Walker,” on the country charts., "Dumas Walker” came from the Headhunters' No. 2 country album, Pickin' on Nashville, and followed their previous hit Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine.” , The music video aired on CMT (then exclusively a video channel) and featured Dumas Walker in a cameo appearance, Then 74 years old, be owned Walker's Package Store on Tennessee Highway 52, in Moss, Tennessee, just south of the Kentucky-Tennessee state line., The Headhunters lived 30 miles north of Walker's store, and first met him in Moss when they traveled there as children to buy fireworks and watch him play marbles. In the "Dumas Walker" music video, Walker played marbles on a pool table, and the song referred to him as "the marble king." As played by Walker and others in this part of Tennessee and southern Kentucky, marbles was dissimilar from the children's game. Called Rolley Hole, it had elements of croquet, pool and golf, and was played on a marble-yard measuring 20 by 40 feet. Some players, including Walker, used marbles made of flint. The game was written up in The Tennessean (Nashville, Jan. 25, 1969), and Walker was mentioned as one of its best players. He and his partner, Welby Lee, had been playing approximately 2,500 games a year for 10 years and claimed to have never lost. Rolley Hole was featured at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., and the annual championship was held at the Standing Stone State Park, south of Celina, Tennessee. , In the wake of the song's success, Walker accommodated tourists who wanted to take photos with him. He autographed bottles of Ski, a citrus soda bottled in Chattanooga and referenced in the song. The Headhunters placed a "Dumas Walker" banner on the windshield of their tour bus and invited Walker to go on the road with them, but he insisted he had obligations at home. , Driving to a marbles tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, shortly after the video was shot, Walker injured his arm and was unable to play again. He died in Nashville at age 75 on April 22, 1991, and is buried in Moss., At the 1990 Grammy awards, the Kentucky Headhunters won the award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for Pickin'on Nashville. They also won the Best New Vocal Group award and Album of the Year for Pickin' on Nashville from the Academy of Country Music, and Vocal Group of the Year award from the Country Music Association. On their third album, Rave On, they recorded "Celina, Tennessee.", In 1991, Walker's store was sold at auction, but the family retained the name "Dumas Walker.", Photo 1 caption: Dumas Walker, "the marble king" demonstrating his shooting style. Photo 2 caption: Walker shooting marbles outside his store in Moss, Tennessee.