2009-12-10

Weldon E. “Big Bill” Lister

1923-2009

Weldon E. “Big Bill” Lister, 86, died after a brief illness Tuesday, Dec. 1, in San Antonio.

He was born Jan. 5, 1923, in Karnes County.

Standing almost 6’8,” Big Bill began his musical career as country music entertainer in 1938 on KNEL radio in Brady. During the 1940s, he worked in and around San Antonio where he performed on numerous live radio and stage shows, including the very first San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo.

In the early 1950s, Big Bill moved to Nashville where he recorded for Capitol Records, appeared regularly on the Grand Ole Opry and traveled the USA as Hank Williams Sr.’s opening act.
Subsequently, Big Bill worked with just about every country star from that era, including Little Jimmy Dickens, String Bean and Minnie Pearl to name a few.

In the 1960s, Bill retired from the music business and took up another love, firearms engraving. His beautiful designs and artistic work placed him in the forefront of the field and his work is now in private collections across the world.

However, Bill’s musical career was revived in the late 1980s when he discovered the only known copy of Hank Williams’ “There’s A Tear in My Beer” stored in his attic. The record was a demo Hank had given so Big Bill could learn and record the song.

Eventually Bill offered the demo to Hank Williams Jr., who recorded it as a duet with his late father. The song became an instant county music hit.

Bill continued to record and perform throughout his lifetime. His last performance was last October in front of hundreds of traditional country music fans on a Carnival Caribbean cruise.

In addition to being a multi-talented musician, firearms engraver and artist, Big Bill was a man of character and integrity. He looked at the inside of a person and not at the outside. Bill also possessed the special gift of making folks immediately feel at home – as if they had known him all their life.

He is survived by his son, Weldon and his wife, Toni; grandchildren, Kristen and Thomas Hattenbach, Jaime Lister, Lauren Lister and WE “Little Bill” Lister III; and great-grandchildren, Bentley Lister; JoeAnne, Danielle and Holly and Teddy Hattenbach.

Big Bill was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Lila Mayfield Lister.

Funeral services were held at the First Baptist Church of Boerne on Saturday, Dec. 5, with interment immediately following at Oak Rest Cemetery in Medina.

The family would like to thank the staff of Life Care Hospital in San Antonio for making Bill’s last days so comfortable.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Heart of Texas Country Music Museum, 1701 S. Bridge Street, Brady 76852.

Arrangements courtesy of Ebensberger-Fisher Funeral Home in Boerne.