Clarence E. "Hank" Snow was born tn Brooklyn. Queens County, Nova Scotia, on May 9,1914. He was a great Jimme Rodgers fan as a teenager and in the beginning copied his style. In his late teens Hank moved to Halifax, his goal to sing on radio station CHNS. He became a regular there for several yean and became known as Hank The Yodeling Ranger. While in Halifax he married Minnie Aalders. Their son, Jimme Rodgers Snow, was born there.On October 10. 1936 Hank went to Montreal and recorded two songs for RCA entitled "The Prisoned Cowboy" and "Lonesome Blue Yodel". Though not hits, the record sold well enough that he was back at RCA in the fall of 1937 and recorded eight more songs. From this session "The Blue Velvet Band" was a major hit and started his rise to fame. For the next several years Hank appeared on the other Canadian radio stations and continued to record for RCA.
In 1945 Hank moved to the Jamboree on WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia, and was very popular there. Around this time he bought has trained horse Shawnee, and for a few years toured each summer with a tent show. In 1948 Hank moved to the Bag D Jamboree in Dallas, Texas. Though he was in the United Stales and becoming popular there RCA refused to release his records there until 1949.
With the help of Ernest Tubb. Hank moved to the Grand Ole Opry on WSM Nashville in January, 1950. His reception there was not exceptional until he recorded "I'm Moving On" That song was on the country charts a total of 44 weeks and was at #1 for 21 of those weeks. A string of hits followed and RCA kept Hank on the label until 1981.
Hank, along with Ernest Tubb, helped establish the Jimmie Rodgers Memorial in Meridian. Mississippi, the first being held May 26, 1953. twenty years after Rodgers death. Hank has had many honors bestowed over his long career and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville in 1979. Hank and his wife now live quietly in the modest home they purchased in 1930 northwest of Nashville.
