Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)

Subject: RE: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 16 Aug 23 - 11:01 AM

I missed this post back in 2016 so would like to add my condolences and add Cynthia to the "In Memoriam" thread. She is still sadly missed.

RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 03:23 PM

2 images from 2005
copy & paste
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15X41H1-uFxX9YhPK6W38ByNPp-SHRSz4/view?usp=drive_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GsKe4T7Do1qk02xQ-6fRan6sgCMDDx0D/view?usp=drive_link

Subject: RE: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 05:17 PM

Thanks - I'll connect them. The search wasn't letting me land on this, and even it is three years after her death.

Subject: RE: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 04:46 PM

Here is an older obituary thread.

Subject: Obit: Cynthia Tannehill Faulk Ryland -Tannywheeler
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 02:58 PM

Cynthia Tannehill Faulk Ryland (Tannywheeler)
Nov. 28, 1943 – July 11, 2013

This obituary post is long overdue; Cindy last posted on Mudcat in 2010, an abrupt end to a wonderful set of stories and observations and details she shared over the years. When I first realized she was gone a lot of time had already passed so I didn't put up an obituary. But then an old thread was reopened this week with one of her posts (thanks, Dick Miles, for that) and I decided to dig out some of our conversations and look at her work in the folk world.

Her obituary

Cynthia Tannehill Ryland of Elgin went to sing with the angels on January 11th, 2013. Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, cousin, sister and friend, she found unbridled joy in good music, good company and loving family. She was born Cynthia Tannehill Faulk at Seton Hospital in Austin, TX on November 28th, 1943 to John Henry Faulk II and Harriet Elizabeth Wood. She attended schools in Austin, TX, New York, and Georgetown, TX. She graduated from Georgetown High School in 1961, and later attended The University of Texas in Austin where she studied voice & music.

She loved to sing and had a beautiful voice, and her repertoire included opera, jazz, folk, and church music. She married Robert C. Ryland of Uvalde, TX on August 7th 1966. They raised three children in South Austin, where they lived for 35 years. She was active in the Episcopal Church choir and Daughters of the King, and in the Austin Friends of Traditional Music. Her parents and one brother in-law, John D. Ryland, preceded her in death.

She is survived by Her husband, Robert C. Ryland, and three children, Patricia Louise Ryland, Robert Cyrus Ryland and Jesse Tannehill Ryland of Elgin, and five grandchildren: Martha Zo Ryland, Henry Levon Ryland & Tave Lawhorn of Elgin, and Jade Ryland and Hunter Ryland of Lockhart. She is also survived by two sisters, Johanna Faulk and Evelyn Faulk of Toronto, Canada, and two brothers, Frank Faulk of Toronto and John Henry Faulk III of Austin.

A funeral and memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 26 at 2 p.m. in Calvary Episcopal Church, 603 Spring St. in Bastrop, with a reception to follow in the parish hall. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Mrs. Ryland's honor to Hospice Austin, or to the ministries of Calvary Episcopal Church. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing - Psalm 100

Published by Austin American-Statesman on Jan. 20, 2013.

Cynthia joined Mudcat when she discovered the site while searching for information about her mother online. She stumbled into this thread: Lyr Add: Mary Hamilton (Hally Wood)
This gem was her first post:

Subject: RE: Hally Wood's 'Mary Hamilton'
From: GUEST,Hally Wood's daughter. - PM
Date: 25 Jul 04 - 04:18 AM

Mother always credited the unusual tune you're discussing to a Scottish (? British?) collector whose last name I don't remember right now. His first 2 initials are A. C.
For the Paton's I can be reached at: [e-mail]. I'm kinda loooowwww tech, so you'll just have to type it out somewhere. But we recently actually acquired a new computer (CPU, monitor, keyboard, printer, and 6 mos. free aol internet) so we're able to connect to modern society if they want us. I just found this site. Wish I could have known sooner.

johnross:   "Goin' Down To Town" came out before 1958, but not much -- '56 or '57. That group of people worked for quite a while on lots of stuff. The rec. co. decided to add instrument tracks and would not take advice on what would be appropriate. The group appeared -- in '57 or '58? -- on the Today show. Some advertiser liked them and had them do a jingle which paid them for a bit. The other members of the group were marvelous, interesting, multi-talented folks. Milt Okun produced for John Denver for a while. "Lee Charles" is/was(?) a singer/actor who also appeared in a musical version of Tom Sawyer (theater on Second Avenue) called "Livin' The Life". And other stuff. I wish I knew where these folks are now. My gratitude for their graciousness knows no bounds.

There is another album, self-published in the late 1970s, to which Sandy P. refers, titled "Songs To Live By". Only regular vinyl LPs made. I still have some. Wish I could put 'em out in another format.

Okay, it is wonderful to get into a group who loves my mother, but who ARE all you folks? When I sign this I will try to use the instruction at the bottom to make "links", but read the email address in the note to the Patons above. I'm getting weepy. Gotta go. Cynthia (Cindy) Tannehill (Tanne) Faulk Ryland.

We connected over our interest in working with historians here in Texas; my boss at the university library was a Ph.D. historian/researcher and writer who worked with some of the historian friends of her famous father, John Henry Faulk.

She really bonded with the Mudcat site and group and several times suggested I needed to get to the Getaway. I'm hoping that means that she did in fact attend? Here is one of her messages to me when we were discussing our relative proximity to each other here in Texas. She shared her background with me in a PM:

1 Oct. 2004

My interest in music goes back to my mother. (Wednesday would have been her 82nd birthday.) Her name was Hally Wood. She came to the Univ of Tx. to study music, having already started doing so -- her dad being musical, he made sure his daughters at least took piano -- and her natural inclinations helped her make the most of that. My dad, whom she met at the school, was involved with J. Frank Dobie and the Lomax family of folklorists. Her skills and talents led her to work transcribing some of their field recordings. She felt the musical and literary merit of the material and could not help learning a lot of it. When I was expected, she told me a friend in Med school had said there was evidence babies in the womb could hear, so, she said, she started singing to me before I was born. I don't have much technical training in the field, but I've been emotionally and psychologically tied to folkmusic since before I was born. Mama never lied.

A bit later we were in NYC, where Mama still worked with the Lomaxes -- but also Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Jean Ritchie, etc. These people filled up my childhood with their music -- but also with their generosity, warmth, affection. Not because I was (or am)special, but because that is (was) the ordinary way they function(ed).   How could I avoid loving the music?   Tw

And this one, with even more information, and she explains how she came up with the Tannywheeler moniker at Mudcat. Look at the next to last paragraph: Best. Story. Ever!

27 Aug 2005
East, hon. From South Austin toward Bastrop--but not actually into town. About 12 miles south and abit west of Bastrop proper.

My dad was married 3 times. He had a total of 5 kids. (I was my mother's only child.)He died survived by his last wife and still-minor son, as well as the rest of us. I had nothing of his in my house but some hats. His "stuff" is at UT here in Austin. His wife dealt with all of that. When we were all together at his house after he died we got to choose hats. After he started having skin cancers removed, he attended to his doc's advice and began wearing hats almost 24/7. Every door to the outside in his home had a number of widely varied hats around it. For walking in the yard & garden he had several; for working in the garden(veggie and flower)he had others; for going hunting with friends or fishing with his son there were special ones; for going to a meeting, speaking engagement, social event, he had a variety of more formal ones. They were all straw. I got one of his garden-working hats, which I still have and wear sometimes. My husband got one of his more formal ones. He doesn't wear it; he said it was just to remember my dad by.

I was born in 1943. I will be 62 in Nov. I did not have a big collection of family stuff. My mother also was married more than once. When I started at UT in Austin, where I met my husband, Bob, I had been a guest in my aunt's home for a few years. Bob graduated and joined the US Navy, so for a few years we stumbled around the country. We came home to Austin in Aug. of 1970 and started living in South Austin right away, renting for 2 years, then moving into the home we lived in until just 2annahaff mos. ago. We raised our 3 kids there. I had some of my mother's (and her mother's) belongings there. "Papers" are at the same place as Daddy's things.

Might A. C. Green have been called Archie? I realize Green is not an unusual name. I knew a delightful guy at the UT folklore collection who was a friend of Daddy's who insisted I call him Archie.   I was sorry when I heard he had died. He had retired to somewhere else and had invited me to come visit, but I never got to make the trip. Is it possible the 2 are one and the same?

A historian and a librarian??!!?!?! Wow!!!! You lucky so-an'-so. I have long thought we should put (elementary)school teachers and librarians in charge of THE WORLD. If they don't have all the answers on the tips of their tongues, they know where and how to look for it. You may not want to tell him. Some men have trouble with swelled heads, if you're too complimentary.

My name is Cynthia Tannehill Faulk (Mrs. Bob) Ryland. My mother worked with Pete Seeger, the Lomaxes, Woody Guthrie, Jean Ritchie, Leadbelly, etc. These folks were around our home when I was a little kid. Woody always called me Tannywheeler. It was his special nickname for me. When I found out about Mudcat it was as part of my looking mother up on the internet, and my first visits to the cafe were about that, dredging up alot of those memories, so that was the "handle" that seemed appropriate.

I need to go do other stuff now. Too much time in front of the screen. Hope I get to meet you facetoface sometime--maybe at GETAWAY.             Tw

Again, her interest in attending the Getaway. I hope everyone enjoyed her company!

Here is a random collection of links to some of her work that people might find interesting.
The Journal of Roots Music: No Depression She was a contributor to this online journal.

This is Tannywheeler/Cindy in a photo she posted on that journal.

Collectif: Songs to live by Frank Davis, Cynthia Tannehill Faulk Ryland, Hally Wood This sale site gives information about a book she co-authored. There might be more information in WorldCAT.

This link to Google Books jumps to text in the book You Gotta' Stand Up: The Life and High Times of John Henry Faulk

Here is a little about her father: John Henry Faulk on Wikipedia and IMDb John Henry Faulk.

She was anchored in Texas but her world was a big one, with all of the people who passed through her parents' and her lives.

I was born here. I married a man from Uvalde (west of San Antonio) and he did 4 years active duty in the U.S.Navy. We came home (we met at the Univ. of Tex.) when his stint was up to be home, and because he thought he would get his masters. Didn't work out, but we raised 3 kids here. Our kids have given us 4 grandkids in this general region, so I wouldn't leave.

Unless I win the LOTTO and can afford to travel for fun. But I'd always come home. My dad was born here. My mother was an army brat. My parents met at the same Univ. as my hubby and I. After I'd started dating the man I later married, I found out his mother had gone to school with 2 of my aunts (on my dad's side) and had known the whole family. I think God planned this well in advance.

Tie that in with her next to last post on Mudcat, and you have a look at her broad base of stories and information:

My grandad was 1 of 10 children of a sharecropper in Texas. My grandma 1 of 6. Got kinfolks "up the wahZOO". The main blindingly obvious truth in our family is "Einstein was right: all things are relative & the Faulks got more relative than others." Tw

Tannywheeler posts on Mudcat

Subject: RE: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 06:59 PM

I read, and was very moved by, John Henry Faulk's book, Fear On Trial. Phil Ochs wrote a song about Faulk, The Ballad of John Henry Faulk

Subject: RE: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)
From: Janie
Date: 29 Apr 16 - 11:31 PM

Same here, Bill. I recall that she was quite delightful. And always valued her contributions on Mudcat, above and below the line.

Thanks for letting us know, Joe.

Subject: RE: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Apr 16 - 10:08 PM

awww... I remember her from Ramblewood. She was a delight. I have a great picture of her making her way up the steep hill toward the auditorium.

Subject: RE: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler (1943-2013)
From: Bugsy
Date: 29 Apr 16 - 09:54 PM

RIP

Bugsy

Subject: Obit: Mudcatter Tannywheeler
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Apr 16 - 03:48 AM

I tried to contact Mudcatter Tannywheeler for information about her mother, Hally Wood. Tannywheeler always responded to me quickly in the past; but this time, I got no response. Turns out that she died January 11, 2013. May she rest in peace.


A Mudcatter sent me this link.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?pid=162464643

Cynthia Tannehill Ryland of Elgin (TX) went to sing with the angels on January 11th, 2013. Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, cousin, sister and friend, she found unbridled joy in good music, good company and loving family. She was born Cynthia Tannehill Faulk at Seton Hospital in Austin, TX on November 28th, 1943 to John Henry Faulk II and Harriet Elizabeth Wood. She attended schools in Austin, TX, New York, and Georgetown, TX. She graduated from Georgetown High School in 1961, and later attended The University of Texas in Austin where she studied voice & music. She loved to sing and had a beautiful voice, and her repertoire included opera, jazz, folk, and church music. She married Robert C. Ryland of Uvalde, TX on August 7th 1966. They raised three children in South Austin, where they lived for 35 years. She was active in the Episcopal Church choir and Daughters of the King, and in the Austin Friends of Traditional Music.
Her parents and one brother in-law, John D. Ryland, preceded her in death. She is survived by Her husband, Robert C. Ryland, and three children, Patricia Louise Ryland, Robert Cyrus Ryland and Jesse Tannehill Ryland of Elgin, and five grandchildren: Martha Zo Ryland, Henry Levon Ryland & Tave Lawhorn of Elgin, and Jade Ryland and Hunter Ryland of Lockhart. She is also survived by two sisters, Johanna Faulk and Evelyn Faulk of Toronto, Canada, and two brothers, Frank Faulk of Toronto and John Henry Faulk III of Austin. A funeral and memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 26 at 2 p.m. in Calvary Episcopal Church, 603 Spring St. in Bastrop, with a reception to follow in the parish hall. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Mrs. Ryland's honor to Hospice Austin, or to the ministries of Calvary Episcopal Church. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing - Psalm 100

Published in Austin American-Statesman on Jan. 20, 2013