{"id":367196,"date":"2026-07-09T19:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/367196\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T19:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:14:12","slug":"john-denvers-fort-worth-roots-in-texas-and-country-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/367196\/","title":{"rendered":"John Denver\u2019s Fort Worth roots in Texas and \u2018Country Roads\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/p>\n

John Denver (#39) is shown in a 1961 Arlington Heights High School yearbook, photographed on Thursday, June 21, 2007.<\/p>\n

Khampha Bouaphanh<\/p>\n

Star-Telegram archives<\/p>\n

FORT WORTH<\/p>\n

John Denver is famous all over again, and his old Fort Worth friends should not be surprised.<\/p>\n

Denver lived here in the Western Hills North neighborhood, worked and went to church on Camp Bowie Boulevard and played football and graduated at Arlington Heights High School.<\/p>\n

Yet he is less well known here than fellow westsiders Betty Buckley, Kelly Clarkson<\/a> or the late Bill Paxton. There\u2019s no street named for him like for Leon Bridges. The plaque remembering Denver at Heights\u2019 auditorium has no devoted visitors like at Townes Van Zandt\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n

When the worldwide popularity of his 1972 song \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d was on display again as a FIFA World Cup<\/a> singalong, the most common reaction on social media was, \u201cI didn\u2019t know he was from Fort Worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

And as a teenager, he hated it here.<\/p>\n

\"At At center, John Denver is shown in a 1961 Arlington Heights High School yearbook, photographed on Thursday, June 21, 2007. Khampha Bouaphanh Star-Telegram archives <\/p>\n

As the \u201cAir Force brat\u201d son of a bomber plant B-58 test pilot transferred here from Alabama, Denver \u2014 real name John Henry Deutschendorf Jr. \u2014 later wrote about how he felt shunned by friends in his time here from 1957 to 1961.<\/p>\n

But some of his classmates and teachers always remembered him. In 1980, he spoke about world hunger to his old friends at Ridglea Presbyterian Church. When he came back to sing at Will Rogers Auditorium two weeks before his 1997 death, he played golf with friends, shared meals at classmate Mike Smith\u2019s Paris Coffee Shop<\/a> and celebrated legendary former Heights chemistry teacher Dona Stovall.<\/p>\n

\"In In 1997, Paris Coffee Shop owner Mike Smith reminisced about Arlington Heights High School classmate John Denver. Ron T. Ennis Star-Telegram archives <\/p>\n

When Denver died, the late Rev. Clifford Williams remembered how he was a shy teenager whom church members asked to sing two songs at a family night dinner in the basement fellowship hall.<\/p>\n

He asked, \u201cDo you think I can do it?\u201d Williams later told the Star-Telegram.<\/p>\n

He sang \u201cOld Shep,\u201d which he later joked was almost the only song he knew.<\/p>\n

Afterward, he asked Williams, \u201cHow did I do?\u201c<\/p>\n

A grandmother from Oklahoma, Mattie Swope, had given him an old Gibson<\/a> guitar.<\/p>\n

He was already a chorus student at church and in a Heights choir that also included future star Delbert McClinton.<\/p>\n

When a Heights track meet conflicted with the school talent show, he chose the talent show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But when he auditioned for the music review at the then-new Six Flags Over Texas amusement park, he didn\u2019t make it. He wound up working on the little sports car ride.<\/p>\n

The way a church member tells it, his father often said, \u201cYou know, if Johnny would just get rid of that guitar, he might make something of himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did fine.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth sang along with 1970s hits like \u201cRocky Mountain High\u201d and \u201cBack Home Again,\u201d but Denver had been gone 15 years. We didn\u2019t know much about his co-founding the Hunger Project or the Windstar Project for ocean conservation or his fundraising for UNICEF.<\/p>\n

In 1985, he was welcomed as the first U.S. performer in years to tour the Soviet Union. But audiences wished they could see Michael Jackson or Prince. Then, in 1992, he became one of the first Americans in decades to tour China.<\/p>\n

In 1980, he had sung \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d to open the new West Virginia University<\/a> football stadium, and it became a crowd singalong after games.<\/p>\n

That predates Boston Red Sox fans\u2019 launching singalongs of \u201cSweet Caroline.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the NFL started scheduling games in Europe, players were surprised that fans began singing \u201cCountry Roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has become an Americana song, not solely a West Virginia song. That\u2019s fitting because Denver\u2019s co-author, Bill Danoff, was remembering country roads in Gaithersburg, Maryland<\/a>. He had never been to West Virginia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just watch the entire stadium at Allianz Arena singing to John Denver\u2019s \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d (very popular with the Oktoberfest crowd, I have learned) in the final two minutes pic.twitter.com\/PwMUG2Z08n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) November 13, 2022<\/a> <\/p>\n

The key line in the song is \u201cRadio reminds me of my home far away,\u201d a reference to the old-time days of AM radio and country music shows broadcast cross-country.<\/p>\n

Danoff remembered growing up in Massachusetts and hearing the \u201cWheeling Jamboree\u201d from a 50,000-watt station in Wheeling, West Virginia.<\/p>\n

The song came out during the Vietnam War, giving it an even stronger tie to nostalgia for home and countryside.<\/p>\n

It took a few years. But John Denver even grew to have nostalgia for Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

\"A A plaque at the Arlington Heights High School auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas, remembers singer John Denver. Coourtesy of Fort Worth ISD
\n Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


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Bud Kennedy is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram opinion columnist. In a 54-year Texas newspaper career, he has covered two Super Bowls, a presidential inauguration, seven national political conventions and 19 Texas Legislature sessions..
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