Born in 1928, Bob Wagoner became interested in the music of the silver screen cowboys early on. He met Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers in the early 1940s and they remained life-long friends. As a teen-ager, Bob, guitarist Billy Strange, fiddler Billy Armstrong and Don Hoag formed a band. Then Bob joined Tommy Duncan's All Stars and they made the first recording of his composition "High Country." Later, he worked with the legendary Ray Whitley. In 1951, Foy Willing & The Riders of the Purple Sage offered Bob a job. He turned it down and Foy hired Dale Warren instead. Bob then moved from music to mining, spending several years in the desert where he developed a love for that setting. There, he further developed his skills as a painter of Western scenery until he met and joined The Reinsmen. With them, he recorded a number of classic sides, appeared on TV specials and he invited them to join him at the Annual Death Valley Encampment, an event they continued to hedline for many years. He developed a long friendship with Ken Curtis and renewed his friendship with Bob Nolan who spent time with Bob and his family at their home in the High Sierras. In 1988, Bob was one of the Founding Members of WMA and soon became a Life Member. though he spends most of time painting, Bob devoted considerable time in the 1990s to perfecting multiple audio recording in his home studio where he began recording classic Western songs and many that might have been lost had he not resurrected them. In the early 1990s he issued a number of cassettes and in recent years has released five CDs. For more on Robert Wagoner, see REINSMEN: Painters of the West in Song by Ken Griffis (1997). 

Talents: Singer, Songwriter

Awards:

• 2018 Hall of Fame Inductees