Leon McAuliffe, who was born in Houston in 1917, was a masterful musician. He began performing at the age of 16 and at 18 was asked to join Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.
He played the steel guitar and, with a handful of other Western performers, busted it out of its country straitjacket to make it really shine in Western Swing, a mix of country, western, jazz and pop that became the most fun American music, possibly, of all time.
He stayed with Wills until World War II when he, like so many of his generation, went off to fight the good fight.