Don Clements

Don Clements was born on 21 May 1939 in Joplin, Missouri, and lived around Joplin and nearby Springfield for his entire life. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a trapeze artist with the circus, but that never happened. Instead, this self-taught musician became a professional entertainer at the age of 15 when he got his first gig at Jim Bowen’s bar in Joplin in 1955. He got the idea to play there when he and his brother were walking past the place and heard someone singing inside. He turned to his brother and said, “Well, hell, we sing better than that!” Ten years later, he cut this record on Si Siman’s Skipper label out of Springfield, Missouri, with The Anita Kerr Singers providing backing vocals. The song was written by Ronnie Self, another underrated performer who wrote great songs like I’m Sorry and Sweet Nothin’s that were made into classic oldies by Brenda Lee. In 1967, Don turned down an offer to become ring announcer for Larry and Betty Carden’s Shrine Circus in Springfield. Instead, he recorded the song Talk To The Animals so the ringmaster could lip-sync to it during the animal acts. Throughout the 1970’s you might catch Don Clements performing with Buddy Welch, together billed as The Entertainers, playing every night at places like the Catch One club in the Riviera Motel out on Range Line Road. Around 1994, Don began performing every night at The Shady Inn, a restaurant and piano bar in Springfield, taking requests for songs like The Lady Is A Tramp from the noisy bar patrons while they sipped their tonic and gin. Don and Genene moved back to Joplin in 1999. Genene got a job with the Aegis Communications Group and became a senior supervisor. Don, who had been good friends with a boxer known as Irish Johnny Copeland, spoke at his funeral in 2004. Don passed away on 20 March 2005 after being diagnosed with cancer. He was 65 years old.