Gene Horner in his shop (12/6/16) – photo © Hollie Deese, Nashville Interiors
Well-known east Tennessee violin maker and luthier Gene Horner died on January 14 at the Ben Atchley Tennessee Veteran’s Home in Knoxville, TN He was 91 years of age.
Born Charles Eugene Horner, he was known as Gene (or Jean) over the course of more than 75 years of building and repairing fiddles and mandolins in east Tennessee. Most of his life was lived on family property near Crossville, where he had converted the one-room cabin where both he and his father had been born into a wood storage shed for his instruments.
Nearly every bluegrass and old time musician in eastern Tennessee had visited Horner’s shop, and many owned fiddles or mandolins he had made. Touring artists from Nashville were also regulars, to look at new instruments, have repairs done, or just to swap stories with Gene. John Hartford was one who had one of Gene’s fiddles. Other Music City pros who stopped by include Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Mel Tillis, and Kenny Sears. Chattanooga’s Fletcher Bright was also a regular visitor.
This lifelong passion for luthiery began as a quest to repair his family’s old fiddle when he was a teenager. After it had been roughly handled for years by Gene and his brothers, he took it upon himself to fix the heirloom so it could be played. Both his fiddling and his luthiery were self-taught skills, which he used to re-top that old Horner family fiddle in 1984, one he kept until his passing.
Over his lifetime he built well over 500 fiddles, roughly sixty mandolins, and the odd cello, viola, or double bass, plus some cabinets and wooden toys. Horner also built a couple of banjos, but only after friends had badgered him into it. Fiddles were his first love.
He was given a Tennessee Governor’s Award in 2009 for his life’s work, and was the feature of a video biography a few years later by The Jackson Foundation.
Until a blood clot took one of his legs a number of years back, he was out in the shop every day working on something. Even following the amputation, you could still find him there in his wheelchair most days.
As per his wishes, there will be no funeral or memorial service for Gene, though his good friend Jack Hatfield will be hosting a public jam in his honor next month in Knoxville, to which all owners/players of Horner’s instruments will be invited.
R.I.P., Gene Horner.
