Remembering Chet Atkins

Born Chester Burton Atkins on this day in 1924 in Luttrell, TN, Atkins was the youngest of four children, all who lived with their mother after their parents divorced when Chet was just six. Music was always an outlet for the Atkins family, and in particular, Chet, whose natural ability was evident very early in life. Before the age of nine he'd become quite proficient on the ukulele and fiddle before ultimately landing his first guitar, which his older brother, Lowell, traded to him for an old pistol and some chores.

At the time, of course, the nation was in the throes of the Great Depression. Atkins said in his 1974 autobiography, Chet Atkins: Country Gentleman: "We were so poor and everybody around us was so poor that it was the forties before anyone even knew there had been a depression." To compound the Atkins' difficulties, Chet suffered from severe asthma, which forced him to relocate to Fortson, Georgia to live with his father. So severe was his affliction that he had to sleep in a straight-back chair to help keep his lungs open. This debilitating condition, ironically, helped him as a guitarist because he learned to fall asleep, sitting upright in his chair, holding his guitar, which he played for hours on end.