Posted by Rodney James on April 23, 2015, 10:49 am
Larry's book and this forum have referred to bea terry and judy ford as two women who influenced jr. Apparently judy's son wrote a book about her and there were some indications bea's son was writing a book about her. Did these books come to fruition and are they accessible? It would be interesting to see how things worked out fr them post jr.
Judy's son, Greg, who had his last name legally changed to Reeves some years ago, sadly passed away in recent years. I knew him and he was a wonderful young man. He wrote a slim book years ago about his mother's rodeo career and there were interesting photos and narrative. Nothing revelatory about Jim was contained in the book, although it was Greg who first contacted me and volunteered the initial details about his mother's involvement with Reeves. I tried for years to get Greg to convince his mother to talk with me, to no avail. Perhaps the timing was just not right for Judy to feel like she wanted to talk about Jim.
After Greg passed away, however, I wrote Judy a letter and she called me and we have been close friends ever since. She lives on a big ranch that she tells me Jim would have loved. In fact, we spoke a few days ago on the phone. She is a very dear lady.
Bea's son, Don, is currently writing a book about his own career (he managed various country music artists and had a fascinating life of his own) and his mother will be mentioned in the book in considerable detail. No publication date has been announced for it as yet. I have heard many of Don's stories and they are engrossing. It will surely be a book country music fans will want to buy. He has known a who's who in the entertainment industry and has many personal details to share about them. Including telling the shocking truth about some sacred cows.
Fascinating insight! Great to hear that Judy Ford is well and has her own ranch. Let's hope Don does the book as both he and his mother seem to have had amazing careers.
You may know from reading my book, "Jim Reeves: His Untold Story," that not long before he died, Jim took Judy with him to look at a ranch that Willie Nelson eventually bought. Judy recalled the rooms being mostly empty, except there was a piano in one, and Jim went over and played it a little.
Jim's close friend Ted Staples also accompanied him to look at ranch land over a period of a couple of years, and Mary went along on one occasion -- Dec. 31, 1963. But that last summer of 1964, Jim had put money down on a ranch he intended to buy without Mary seeing the property. Right after her husband was killed, she was quoted in a Texas newspaper as saying she had intended to go see the land by riding along on Big Blue on Jim's next tour, which was to have taken him back to Texas.
Nothing revelatory except that the author's last name is Reeves, and in the text he said that Jim Reeves was his mother's best friend who taught her how to fly an airplane and whom she misses every day of her life. It has a photo of the autographed photo Jim gave Judy Ford,but it is the same that any fan of Jim's may have acquired when Jim was alive in the 1950's.It takes only a little deductive reasoning to figure out that Greg was JR's son.Anita L. Cooper
The book by Greg Reeves was published in 1992.He was a former model and actor who was at that time working with emotionally disturbed children,according to the back cover biography of the author of 'Judy Ford:World Champion Cowgirl',Greg Reeves.It needs to be issued in a second edition,I hope someone will republish it.Anita L. Cooper
I found this picture of Greg Reeves on the Thomason Funeral home website. It says that his biological father was killed in a plane crash when he was 2 years old. It doesn't give his biological father's name but we can assume it was Jim Reeves. It also mentions the book he wrote about his mother Judy Ford.
I've seen pics of Greg and he was a very handsome fellow. In fact, he did some professional modeling (among other endeavors) and was a very sweet guy. His loss still grieves his mother, Judy, and she will never recover from it. She lives with the pain daily. I enjoyed my visits on the phone with him. He initially contacted me and wanted to make sure I put his mother in my book. But ironically, she did not agree to talk to me until after Greg's passing...
Judy is a dear friend who lives on a big ranch in Texas.
on April 23, 2015, 10:49 am