Trivia

He began singing as a child and played 100 instruments proficiently, yet never learned to read or write music.

He did a great deal of traveling, and once received an award from the National Safety Council for having worn out 27 cars without being involved in a single accident.

He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 22, 1986.

He and his wife adopted four children: Stephen Burnette, Linda Burnette, Brian Burnette and Carolyn Burnette. Steven's daughter is Elizabeth Burnette.

Posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971 and the Western Music Association in 1998.

A part of his shtick was to talk and sing in a "frog" voice. In a number of his early westerns, he would play characters named "Frog Millhouse".

On May 5, 2012, he was posthumously inducted into the Cowtown Society of Western Music Hall of Fame as a Hero.

Smiley Burnette passed away on February 16, 1967, a month away from what would have been his 56th birthday on March 18.

In the 1960s he owned a drive-in restaurant in Escondido, CA, called "The Checkered Shirt".

Following his death, he was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) in Los Angeles, California.