Tommy Doss' Birthday

Tommy (top), Lloyd Perryman, Karl Farr, Dale Warren (left to right)
Photo courtesy of Roy Rogers/Pioneer Museum Exhibit, Branson, MO.

Lloyd Thomas "Tommy" Doss was born in Weiser, ID, on September 26, 1920. He was the second youngest child of Thomas and Thursey Doss.

Tommy developed an interest and talent in music. As a teenager, he loved listening to the Sons of the Pioneers and dreamed about singing with them one day.

And in 1949 when Bob Nolan, the Sons of the Pioneers' baritone, decided to retire. Nolan had a very unique voice that was the very foundation for the Pioneers' sound, and without Nolan's voice, they wouldn't sound the same.

Tommy had moved down to California and was performing with Ole Rasmussen and His Nebraska Cornhuskers when the Pioneers heard him sing. They were astounded at just how similar Tommy's voice was to Bob's, and Tommy was just what the Pioneers needed after Bob Nolan retired.

He joined the group in July of 1949. (This was when he started going by the name of  Tommy Doss, because the Pioneers already had a Lloyd; Lloyd Perryman joined the Sons of the Pioneers in 1936.) Over the next fourteen years, Tommy traveled, recorded, and appeared in movies and TV shows with them.

Tommy singing "Cool Water" on the Grand Ole Opry show

In 1963, Tommy decided to retire and move back to eastern Oregon, where he had grown up. He felt the life of an entertainer was not the life of a family man (he and his wife, Linda Naomi, had two children, Timothy and Dennis). He still made occasional recordings and appearances with the Pioneers until 1967.

Tommy and Naomi owned and operated the Imnaha Tavern and Store for fourteen years, and then retired to Enterprise, Oregon, where Tommy passed away on October 5, 2011.








See Tommy's biography here on the Bob Nolan website.