Fred Rose

Fred Rose (b. Evansville, August 24, 1897 – d. Nashville, Tennessee, December 1, 1954) – Songwriter and music publishing executive. He wrote songs for Hank Williams, Sophie Tucker, and Elvis Presley. After taking an interest in singing and playing the piano as a young boy in Evansville, Rose moved to Chicago as a teenager and eventually made it into the vaudeville circuit. As a young man, he then experienced great success as a songwriter. Among his early songs were “Red Hot Mama” (1924) and “Deed I Do” (1926), sung by Sophie Tucker and Ruth Etling, respectively. From there, he took his songwriting career to Nashville, New York City, and Hollywood (in that order). In 1942, he returned to Nashville and, along with Roy Acuff, founded the Acuff-Rose Publishing Company, the first music publishing company exclusively for country music. One of country music’s most famous personalities through the 1940s and early 1950s, Rose continued to write songs including several hits for Hank Williams. In fact, Rose and Williams co-wrote "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive," which Williams took to #1 on the Country chart in 1952. After Rose’s death in 1954, his son Wesley took control of the publishing company.