If I'm recalling it right, Burl Ives didn't just leave college in his 3rd year to go on the road. He was found in a girls dorm after hours (a bad thing in those days) and was tossed out of school. He never tried to go back after that. This is local lore at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. I used to play there every so often in the 1970s. A short distance from Charleston (south) is the burial spot of Thomas Lincoln---father of Abraham. True or not, it's a good story.

Art Thieme