Global InformationCharlie Dunn information
Charles Russell Dunn (c. 1898 – September 23, 1993)[1] was an American bootmaker of handmade Western, or cowboy boots for more than 80 years. Dubbed the "Michelangelo of cowboy boots,"[2] he first gained widespread notice in the wake of Jerry Jeff Walker's song "Charlie Dunn" (1972). By the time he retired in 1988 from Texas Traditions, his shop in Austin, he routinely charged up to $3,000 for a pair of boots, had a waiting list of hundreds of interested buyers willing to wait three years for delivery, and had made boots for a long list of celebrities, including Arnold Palmer, Mary Kay Place, Gene Autry, Slim Pickens, Don F Brooks, Harry Belafonte, Ernest Tubb, Peter Fonda, and Carole King.[3]
Don Counts, who owned several pairs of Charlie's boots and lured him out of a premature retirement, described Charlie as "a real character, an elflike creature who captivated everybody."[4] Known for his colorful language and broad sense of humor, Charlie in his customary black beret and cobbler's apron measured out at 5'4" and 135 pounds of pure imp.[5] One friend noted that even though he was "quiet-spoken," he could "tell stories all day and all night."[6]
When Charlie died at 95 from complications arising from a stroke,[7] he had passed along his bootmaking mastery to Lee Miller, his heir-designate, thus assuring the survival of exceptional bootmaking in the traditional, handmade manner.[8] As with four generations of Dunns before him, Charlie had persevered in and prolonged the production of custom boots, despite the general trend toward bootmaking in factories.[9] One of a handful of survivors of an endangered species—the half artisan, half artist maker of once-common items—Charlie managed, in passing his skills to a new generation, to make sure that the world continued to enjoy prized bootmaking.
- ^ U.S Census Records for Batesville, County, AR, list Charlie as one year old in 1900. His tombstone gives his birth date as September 19, 1898. Apparently the census was taken before his second birthday in 1900. Sources occasionally mistake his birth year as 1895, e. g., obituary, Austin American-Statesman (?), September, 24, 25, or 26, 1993.
- ^ Travel & Leisure, November, 1988, 244.
- ^ Obituary, New York Times, September 25, 1993.
- ^ Obituary, September 25, 1993, Fort Worth Star-Telegram. For the role of Counts in bringing Charlie out of retirement, see Morris, 32, and below.
- ^ Obituary, September 25, 1993, Dallas Morning News.
- ^ Robyn Turner quoted in Art Chapman, Obituary of Charlie Dunn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram September 28, 1993, 12A.
- ^ Obituary, September 25, 1993, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
- ^ Michael Wallis, Philip Morris Magazine, November–December 1989, 32.
- ^ Larry Skloss, "The Best Boots in the World?" Gentry Magazine, Austin Citizen, Vol. 1, No. 5, March 29, 1978.