Jimmie Vaughan and the Mayor of Dallas Eric Johnson at Kiest Park on Oct. 3, 2021. Photo by Jeffrey Liles
Hundreds of fans, friends and family members turned out to Kiest Park Sunday for the dedication of public art work memorializing Oak Cliff’s famous blues brothers.
Jimmie Vaughan appeared with special guest Gary Clark Jr. and performed two songs in front of the memorial. Sunday would’ve been Stevie Ray Vaughan’s 67th birthday.
Jimmie Vaughan told the audience that everyone in his family on both sides is from Oak Cliff, Cockrell Hill and nearby suburbs. His parents, aunts and uncles all attended Sunset and Adamson high schools. Vaughan’s dad bought their house on Glenfield Avenue for $8,000 in 1958.
Coincidentally, the very site of the memorial is part of a snapshot in Vaughan family history.
When his dad, also named Jimmie Lee Vaughan, bought a 1947 Ford Coupe, “he pulled it right here,” Vaughan said.
Martha, Jimmie and Stevie Ray’s mom, took a picture of her husband with his foot up on the bumper.
“Like, check out my new car,” Vaughan said.
He told a couple of other stories about the park and growing up in Oak Cliff.
Gary Clark Jr. at Kiest Park during the dedication of public artwork memorializing Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan on Oct. 3, 2021. Photo by Jeffrey Liles
Back in the ’40s, his “two big uncles” used to collect all the unspent fire crackers at Kiest Park every July 5, then put them all in a box and blow it up. One year, that almost killed his uncle, Jerrell Cook, when it exploded in his face and left him severely scarred for life.
“So that happened here,” Vaughan said.
His daughter, Tina, went to Kimball and used to play soccer at Kiest Park.
The Hampton Road Drive-In was also nearby, and they used to climb up in another kid’s treehouse to watch the show.
His mother’s brothers and sisters lived near Illinois and Cockrell Hill, and the brothers used to go to the movies at The Heights theater in Cockrell Hill. After the show, a band would play, “and that’s the first place I ever heard rock ‘n’ roll,” Vaughan says.
There were guitar players on both sides of the family, and Vaughan’s uncle Sammy, “one of those uncles that played drums,” was present at the ceremony. Vaughan’s mother, born Martha Cook, died in 2009. The elder Jimmie Lee Vaughan was an asbestos worker who died in 1986. Stevie Ray died in a helicopter crash in 1990.
The story goes that Jimmie Vaughan signed up for football at Stockard Middle School because someone told him playing football was the way to get a girlfriend. He broke his collarbone the first day, and his dad gave him a guitar to keep him busy while it healed.
Instead of soccer games, their dad used to load them up in his pickup to play in nightclubs.
When Jimmie was about 13, his dad got him and Stevie Ray a gig at the Hobnob Lounge on Ross Avenue, alongside a go-go dancer “who was not 13,” Vaughan says. “She was about 20. She was fine. She was about 6 feet tall.” They were afraid to talk to her. In the summer, they played six nights a week 9 p.m.-midnight and until 1 a.m. on Saturdays. Everyone in their trio made $50 a week, and the dads would hang around in the back and drink beer.
Jimmie Vaughan’s wife, Robin, and several family members attended the dedication.
“Stevie’s here too,” Vaughan said. “He would be so proud, and my mother and father and my uncles.”
The monument was created by Spanish artist Casto Solano, who is a Stevie Ray Vaughan fan. Filmmaker Kirby Warnock championed fundraising for the artwork, which was paid for with private donations and City of Dallas bond funds. Vaughan says he hopes a panel could be added someday to honor T-Bone Walker.
Mayor Eric Johnson declared Oct. 3 Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan day in the City of Dallas.
Vaughan played a couple of tunes at the end of the ceremony. Watch the video and see more pictures from the event below.
