Charlie Monroe

Charlie Monroe (July 4, 1903 – September 27, 1975) was an American country and bluegrass music guitarist. Charlie performed with his brother, Bill, as part of the Monroe Brothers.

The Monroe Brothers Tom Owen, a musician on the WLS Barn Dance radio program, heard them play at a dance club in 1932 and asked them to join his group as dancers. They accepted, and toured with Owen for the next two years. In 1934, they once again got offers to play music, this time for Indiana radio stations WAE and WJKS. Not long after this, Texas Crystals, a pharmaceutical company, offered to sponsor the Monroes for a radio program of their own. When Birch refused the offer, Bill and Charlie took the bill as The Monroe Brothers. He spent most of his time during the early 1940s in Greensboro, North Carolina at radio station WBIG, where he was featured on a show called the Noonday Jamboree every day. He also spent some time in '44 and '45 at WSJS in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A number of noted bluegrass musicians played with Charlie's band, including Lester Flatt, Red Rector, Curly Seckler, Fiddlin' Dale Cole , Olen Gardner and Ira Louvin. The Kentucky Pardners enjoyed considerable success as a touring outfit in the American South throughout the 1940s.

Charlie signed with RCA Victor in 1946 and with Decca Records in 1950; he wrote and recorded a large body of material and continued to tour relentlessly until he announced his retirement in 1957. He moved back to his farm and, after the death of his first wife, worked in manual labor in Indiana again. He remarried in 1969. On July 3 of the same year, he performed with Bill and Birch at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.

Monroe was asked by Jimmy Martin to play at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival in 1972. His performance was a great success.

Death He continued to play festivals until diagnosed with cancer in 1974; he died at his farm in Reidsville, North Carolina in 1975 and was buried in his family's plot.