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Robert Bruce "Bob" Ferguson Sr (December 30, 1927
– July 22, 2001) was an United
States|American songwriter, record producer, and
historian.

He wrote the songs "On the Wings of a Dove" and
"Carroll County Accident." The "Carroll County
Accident" won the Country Music Association Song
of the Year in 1969. In 1987, Broadcast Music
Incorporated (BMI) awarded Bob with the "million
air" plays for the "Wings of a Dove."

The country song "Carroll County Accident," a hit
for and now one of the signature songs of Porter
Waggoner, was written when Bob passed through
Carroll County when driving from Nashville to
Memphis on U.S. Highway 70.

For a short time, Bob worked for Colonel Tom
Parker, Elvis Presley's manager.

He served in the U.S. Army and the United States
Marine Corps. While he was in the USMC, he was
posted to MCRD San Diego and was a drill
instructor.

After the military, he attended Washington State
University where he got a degree in speech. For a
time, he was Ferlin Husky's manager. Bob produced
records for Chet Atkins, Porter Wagoner, Charley
Pride, Dolly Parton, and many others. Bob's alter
stage ego was Eli Possumtrot.

== Biography ==


While in high school, Bob was a typesetter at the
local newspaper, a Fire Tower Lookout for the U.S.
Forest Service and a member of the Missouri State
Guard during World War II. After graduating from
high school in 1945, he entered the U.S. Army
where he attained the rank of Sergeant and served
as a radioman for two winters in Alaska on Task
Force Frigid testing military equipment under
Arctic condition. 

After discharge from the Army, Bob went out West
and worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a fire
tower lookout and trail crew boss and as a laborer
in the wheat fields. While working as a typesetter
for the newspaper in Moses Lake, WA, he led the
Boy Scout Troop from that city to the Boy Scout
Jamboree at Valley Forge, PA, in 1950. 

Bob then entered Washington State College,
Pullman, Washington|Pullman. WA, and secured his
BS in Speech, specializing in Radio and Television
Production. While in college, he joined a U.S.
Marine Reserve Unit and was called to duty during
the Korean War. He served as a Cpl. in the 3rd
Division as a Recruit Company Commander and
Producer of Marine training motion pictures. 

After graduation from college, Bob moved to
Nashville, TN, as manager for country music singer
Ferlin Husky. In 1958, he wrote his first
multi-million seller song, "Wings of A Dove",
which was first recorded by Ferlin and has since
been recorded by many artists and in many
languages around the world. In 1987, "Wings of a
Dove" received BMI's "One million airplays" Award.


He then became the Motion Picture Producer for the
Tennessee Game and Fish Commission. In 1960, the
North American Wildlife Conservation Association
named his production, "The World Outdoors" the
"Best Motion Picture of the Year". "The World
Outdoors", most notably "Wild Kingdom", influenced
many wildlife television shows. 
 
Bob then returned to Nashville as a Senior
Producer with RCA Music Corporation and served as
assistant to Chet Atkins and served in that
position until his retirement. While there, he
produced records for Chet, Porter Waggoner, Dolly
Parton, Connie Smith, Floyd Cramer, Danny Davis,
The Browns, Helen Cornelius, Lester Flatt, Homer
and Jethro, Charlie Pride and many others. With
Chet, he played a major roll in the development of
what was to become known as the Nashville Sound
and elevated Nashville as the country music
capital of the world. He also played a major roll
in developing the Country Music Association. 

He performed infrequently in his comedy roll as
Grandpappy Possumtrot, a name that he took from a
crossroad community near his home in the Ozarks.
In that roll, he recorded his own song, "Eli's
Blue", a lament about a man who accidentally shot
his own coonhound. In that roll he also performed
with Ferlin Huskey, playing his Simon Crum
character, in "The Good Old Days", a motion
picture produced by the Tennessee Game and Fish
Commission. 

He wrote several other songs including another
million seller, "Carroll County Accident" which
was first recorded by Porter Waggoner and for
which he received a Country Music Award for the
"Song of the Year" for 1969. His first successful
single was with the Avons. He temporarily served
as an assistant to Elvis' manager. He was also the
Author of two books with Jesse Burt as Co-Author;
"So You Want to be in Music" and "Southeastern
Indians - Then and Now". 

While working at RCA, he secured his Master's
Degree in Anthropology from Vanderbilt University.
He served as volunteer Project Director and
President of Southeastern Indian Antiquities
Survey and in that roll oversaw the recovery and
preservation of remains and artifacts unearthed
during construction in the Nashville area. One
startling discovery was the first remains of a
saber-toothed tiger found east of the Mississippi
River during construction of the First American
Bank building in downtown Nashville. On September
25, 1997, twenty-six years after the find, the
newly found hockey team, the Nashville Predators,
presented the head of a saber-toothed tiger as
their logo. 

After his retirement from RCA, Bob served as
Historian and Audio-Visual Producer for the
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. In that roll,
he also helped develop the Museum of the Southern
Indian (Choctaw Museum) in 1981. In 1983, he
created the foundation for Choctaw Video
Productions and created numerous tribal
productions. In 1987, he established WHTV as local
cable service for Pearl River/Philadelphia (MS).
He retired from that position in 1998 and was
awarded Tribal Historian Emeritus. 

Bob was the recipient of many awards and
recognitions during his multiple careers. He was
also a member of Mensa, the high I.Q. society. 

He is survived by his wife, Martha Jean Ferguson
(Lewis), four children, Robert Bruce "Rob"
Ferguson Jr. of Hope, MS, John Marshall Ferguson
of Philadelphia, MS, Mary Lorena Ferguson (Lewis)
of Philadelphia, MS and Missouri Ann Ferguson
(Brown) of Hugo, Oklahoma, six grandchildren, two
brothers, A. Claude Ferguson of Bedford, Indiana,
and Paul Eugene Ferguson of Amarillo, Texas. His
parents and one brother, John Carl Ferguson, Jr.,
preceded him in death.

Robert Bruce "Bob" Ferguson Sr. died Sunday, July
22, 2001 at 1:05 a.m. in the University of
Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson,
Mississippi. Cause of death is attributed to
Cancer. He is buried at Phillip's Cemetary in
rural Neshoba County near Philadelphia, MS. He was
73. 

lived|b=1927|d=2001|key=Ferguson, Bob