COMMERCE, Texas -- The music of the late Ruby Allmond of
Fannin County will be performed at Texas A&M University-Commerce on Monday, March 30.

Lou Ann Petty of Cumby, a singer who performs in the area accompanied by A&M-Commerce staff member Rob McWhorter on bass and a lead guitarist, will perform from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Gee Library lobby. The public is invited to attend.

Petty will sing Allmond's "Sing the Blues for Me, Baby," "Sounds of Texas," and "Walk On Woman."

Allmond, who died in 2006 at the age of 83, was a musician and songwriter. The Bonham area resident played the fiddle and guitar
at country music shows primarily in the late 1940s and 1950s
throughout North and Northeast Texas and Oklahoma. She entertained at Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Sam Rayburn's election campaign stops.

Her "Reno," sung by Dottie West and produced by Chet Atkins, rose to the Top Ten in national hit lists.

Special guest at the March 30 program will be Audra Brock of
Bonham, who donated the collection of Allmond's music to Gee Library last fall. The collection of donated items includes phonograph
records, CDs, ring binders of photos of Allmond, show posters, and
lyrics to all of her 90 songs, letters, sheet music, and reel-to-reel
tapes of her singing and playing her songs.

Audra Brock of Bonham, a longtime friend of the late Fannin County musician and songwriter Ruby Allmond, visits with Texas A&M University-Commerce President Dan Jones. Brock and Jones were at a signing ceremony where the Bonham resident donated Allmond's music collection to Gee Library at A&M-Commerce. (A&M-Commerce photo/Paul Bryan)

In donating the items to A&M-Commerce, Brock, a close personal friend of Allmond's, said, "I want to present this collection to the people of Texas. It is a great pleasure to work with Dr. Jim Conrad of Gee Library to preserve this collection."

Both Brock and Allmond grew up on farms near Bailey in Fannin
County and worked at Bonham State Bank. In the evenings, Allmond
would come to Brock's house to the recording studio they had built to
work on her music, which Brock referred to as "swing fiddle" and
"Texas Classic."

Ruby Allmond

The collection, which is housed in the library's Special Collections Department, is "unique," Conrad said.