Biography
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Born
1 June 1913
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Died
24 November 1965 (aged 52)
Frank Proffitt (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965) was an Appalachian old time banjoist and performer at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. He was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the banjo. He recorded the ballad "Tom Dooley" for Alan Lomax on one of his (Lomax's) song collecting trips.
Frank was born in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee and was raised in the Reese area of North Carolina where he worked in a variety of jobs and lived on a farm with his wife and six children. He grew tobacco, worked as a carpenter and in a spark plug factory. He was known for his carpentry skill, Proffitt's fretless banjos and dulcimers were homemade.
In 1937, Frank Proffitt met Frank Warner. Warner was searching out a dulcimer builder and thus began a 30 year friendship and song swapping. The Kingston Trio attributes their recording of Tom Dooley to a recording Frank Warner made of the ballad that he learned from Proffitt.
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