Our Arklahoma Heritage: The Nashville hitmaker whose roots started and ended in rural Mayes County
- Dennis McCaslin
- 36 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Carl Robert Belew was born on April 21, 1931, in the small town of Salina, (Mayes County,).
Growing up in a working-class family during the final years of the Great Depression, Carl learned the value of hard work early. His father, Carl William Belew, was a builder and plumber, and at age 15 Carl left school to apprentice in the family trade.
Yet even as he worked with pipes and wrenches, music stirred inside him. He taught himself guitar and began performing at local venues around northeast Oklahoma as a teenager.In the early 1950s, Belew’s talent carried him beyond Oklahoma’s borders.
He landed a spot on the iconic Louisiana Hayride and later moved to California, where he won an amateur talent contest in Pasadena. These early breaks led to recording contracts and his first steps into the national music scene. B
Belew’s true gift emerged as a songwriter. His composition “Lonely Street” became a major hit for Andy Williams in 1959 and was also recorded by legends like Patsy Cline. He followed with “Am I That Easy to Forget,” a heartfelt ballad that became one of his biggest successes.
Belew’s own version climbed into the Top 10 on the country charts, while covers by Jim Reeves, Engelbert Humperdinck, and others helped turn it into a country standard
.Over the next two decades, Belew recorded for Decca, RCA Victor, and MCA. Although he scored a respectable string of chart singles as a performer, his deepest impact came through the songs he wrote for others.
His work was recorded by an impressive array of artists including Eddy Arnold, Faron Young, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Skeeter Davis, and Dean Martin.
In 1951, Carl married Catherine May Stover. The couple had one son, Robert Gene “Bobby” Belew. While Carl chased musical opportunities in California and Nashville, the family maintained strong roots in Oklahoma. They eventually returned to Salina, where Catherine operated a furniture store.
Those close to him remembered Carl as a devoted husband, father, and later a loving grandfather who stayed grounded despite his Nashville success.
In 1976, Carl Belew received one of country music’s highest honors when he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Mayes County later paid tribute by designating a portion of Highway 20 as the Carl Belew Memorial Highway.A
fter years of battling declining health, Carl Belew passed away from cancer on October 31, 1990, at the age of 59 in his beloved hometown of Salina. He was laid to rest at Ross Mayes Cemetery, just a short distance from the highway named in his honor.
His wife Catherine joined him there after her passing in 2007.
Though he never sought the spotlight of superstardom, Carl Belew left behind a rich catalog of songs that continue to resonate decades later.
The Oklahoma plumber turned gifted songwriter proved that some of country music’s most enduring classics came from quiet, hardworking talents with a gift for capturing the heart.
