by Sandra BrennanThough he was once known as Americas Favorite Folksinger, Slim Whitman was, for the majority of his career, more famous in Europe than in the United States. Best remembered for his early-50s hit singles like Love Song of the Waterfall, Indian Love Call, and Singing Hills, Whitman was an excellent yodeler known for singing mellow, romantic and clean-cut songs.As a child, Slim Whitman (born Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr.) became infatuated with music and learned to yodel listening to Montana Slim and Jimmie Rodgers records. At age 17, he married 15-year-old Geraldine Crist, a preachers daughter. The newlyweds moved to a 40-acre farm south of Jacksonville, FL, where Whitman worked as a meat packer. While working in the plant, he suffered an accident and lost two fingers on his left hand. After the accident, he began working in a Tampa shipyard. During World War II, Whitman served in the US Navy, where he learned to play guitar. Following the war, he returned to the shipyard and also joined a local minor-league baseball team, the Plant City Berries. Whitman remained with the team through 1948, but then began building a singing career at several Tampa radio stations, eventually creating a back-up band, the Variety Rhythm Boys.Slim Whitman got his first big break after Colonel Tom Parker — who was managing Eddy Arnold at the time — heard him singing on radio station WFLA. Parker landed a contract with RCA for Whitman by the end of 1948. After reluctantly complying with the labels request to change his first name to Slim, he released his first single, Im Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky — eventually to become his theme song. He made his national debut on the Mutual Networks Smokey Mountain Hayride in the summer of 1949, and the following year joined the Louisiana Hayride. Despite his national exposure, Whitmans career wasnt making much of an impact and he was forced to take a job as a part-time mailman.In the early 50s, he released a cover of Bob Nolans Love Song of the Waterfall, which became his breakthrough hit, peaking at number ten on the country charts; the follow-up single, Indian Love Call, made him a star, peaking at number two on the country charts and crossing over into the pop Top Ten. Both sides of his next single — Keep It a Secret / My Heart Is Broken in Three — were also major hits and he continued to have a string of Top Ten hits into the mid-50s. In 1955, his title song for the film Rose-Marie became a smash on both sides of the Atlantic; following its success, Whitman joined the Grand Ole Opry, and then went to Britain in 1956 as the first country singer to play the London Palladium. Throughout the late 50s and early 60s, he had a string of British hits, including Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Unchain My Heart, and Ill Take You Home Again Kathleen.Although he was experiencing great success in the UK, Whitmans career was in neutral in the US. After 1954s Singing Hills, he had only two Top 40 hits in the course of a decade. In 1965, he bounced back into the country Top Ten with More Than Yesterday. For the next few years, he had a series of minor country hits, including Rainbows Are Back in Style (1968), Happy Street (1968) and Tomorrow Never Comes (1970). Throughout the early 70s, he continued to have minor hits, but in 1974, he retired from active recording.In 1979, Whitman filmed a television commercial to support Suffolk Marketings release of a collection of his greatest hits. On the strength of the commercials, All My Best sold four million records and became the best-selling television-marketed album in history. After its success, the label released Just for You in 1980 and The Best in 1982. Between 1980 and 1984, Whitman had a small run of minor hits, highlighted by 1980s number 15 hit, When. In the late 80s, he returned to television-marketed albums, releasing Slim Whitman — Best Loved Favorites in 1989 and 20 Precious Memories in 1991. During the 90s, Whitman recorded infrequently but continued to tour successfully, particularly in Europe and Australia.