By profession, Eddie was a government inspector but also a prolific songwriter who spent a lot of time at the famous "Big D Jamboree." On the day he was killed, he had taken an earlier flight than he usually did, as he was in a hurry to get home to his wife and children after being gone all week. He and 84 other people aboard Braniff Flight 353 from Houston to Dallas crashed near Dawson, Texas during a storm. He was only 32. Glenda McDuff, Eddie's widow, was left with four children to raise by herself — ages 15, 14, seven and six. I asked her in a taped interview if Ray Winkler ever offered her any help and she responded "Nope...he never did."
Despite the tragedy and the financial struggle he knew Glenda had in supporting herself and her children, Ray continued to perpetuate the falsehood that he and John Hathcock had written the song alone, thereby further enriching himself and stoking his gigantic ego.
Later he said revealingly "I don't know who did [the original demo]; he only sang the words and played the chords real rough." What a crock.
Notice that neither Winkler nor Hatchcock wrote any other hits for Jim Reeves.
Ray bragged in a letter he sent to someone (that I have a copy of) that John Hatchcock was such a fabulous writer of lyrics but the bridge on "Welcome To My World" includes words taken from Matthew 7:7–8 ("Knock and the door will open; seek and you will find; ask and you'll be given ... ," from the Sermon on the Mount).
I think both Hathcock and Winkler were outright phonies and the only reason they got by with this deception is because poor Eddie McDuff met an untimely death and couldn't challenge them publicly or take legal action against them. The amount of money that has gone to the wrong people is staggering, and it continues to this day. It takes a lot of gall for heirs of this great fortune to show up at public events and take applause for the work that somebody else did. They're either in denial or they just don't give a damn about the truth.
You can read more details on page 527 in my book, "Jim Reeves: His Untold Story."
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