Clifton Clowers, the Arkansas farmer who inspired Claude King’s 1962 hit “Wolverton Mountain”, died on 15 August 1994 aged 102. The song transformed him into a minor celebrity, drawing visitors to the mountain and helping preserve his story within country music history.

Written in 1959 by Clowers’ nephew Merle Kilgore as a joke and gift, the song was initially rejected by George Jones and Johnny Horton before King revised and recorded it. It spent nine weeks atop the country chart and reached No. 6 on the US Hot 100; although the lyrics portrayed Clowers as protective of a “pretty daughter”, he and his wife had six children, and he said he used guns and knives only for hunting and whittling.