MUSIC
was able to go and call his own
shots and pick his gigs and play
where he wanted to.”
Stewart’s busy schedule made
him forgetful at times, Porter said.
Once, listeners at a radio station
16
in Texas named him “king of
the honky-tonk,” but the station
wanted Stewart to call in, or else
DJs claimed they would not play
his songs.
Listeners who wanted to hear
more Stewart music called in pretending
to be him, but they couldn’t
answer personal questions. Stewart
was contacted and told to call the
station, but in his sleepy haze he couldn’t recall his birth date
or the names of his band members. The station didn’t believe
it was him. He had to get the names and details from other
band members and call the station back.
Porter noted that young kids today are discovering Stewart.
“He had a second generation of fans when I met him,” Porter
said. “He’s already picked up another generation. He’s got
three generations of fans who know his songs word for word.”
PARTNERS FOR LIFE
Stewart had been married to the former Mary Lou Taylor for
42 years. Only 19 days after her death from pneumonia, Stewart
died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in December 2003.
Friends and family stayed close to him in the days after
Mary Lou’s death. Schwartz was with him days before, when ED DRONDOSKI
Shannon with son Joseph Peavy, Gary’s grandson.
Stewart and daughter Shannon
Stewart pose for a photo
taken at the St. Lucie County
Fair.
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