Cindy Walker was arguably the greatest songwriter ever to come out of Texas.
And that’s saying a lot. The songster from Mexia is considered among country music’s greatest songwriters.
Walker had an estimated 500 songs recorded over five decades. Her first song committed to wax was Bing Crosby singing “Lone Star Trail” in 1941. Walker’s last major hit was Ricky Skaggs’ 1982 reworking of “I Don’t Care.”
Among her songbook, “You Don’t Know Me” (1955) was a huge hit for Ray Charles and Elvis Presley and became a country standard recorded by countless artists. “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)” (1962) helped burnish Roy Orbison’s star.
Many know Walker as the composer of “Bubbles in My Beer.” Recorded by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1947, it has been called the greatest self-pitying drinking song.
Walker worked in Los Angeles as a singer/songwriter for 13 years before returning to Mexia in 1954. She would spend the rest of her life in a modest three-bedroom house at 114 S. Brooks St. From here she churned out lyrics with poetic turns of phrase on a hand-painted typewriter.
Walker died at age 88 on March 23, 2006. Her family – she never married nor had children – placed a pink granite guitar monument on her grave. The gravesite is in the Mexia Cemetery at 1001 N. Kaufman. It is a well-kept memorial park and Walker’s grave is to the right of the entrance, four roads down in Section 4.
After Walker’s death her home fell into disrepair. In 2022, the Cindy Walker Foundation (www.cindywalkerfoundation.org) purchased and stabilized the house. The plans are to turn the once-musical center into a museum. Every year on the third weekend in July, around Walker’s birthday, the foundation holds a fundraising concert. You can bet it’ll be a night of some great country ballads.
1,766th in a series. Everywhere is a day trip from somewhere: Follow “Day Trips & Beyond,” a travel blog, at austinchronicle.com/daily/travel.
This article appears in August 8 • 2025.
