In Bethany, Meet an Oklahoma Country Music Legend You Never Knew

I live in awe of songwriters. Heck—as someone who’s unsuccessfully struggled his whole life to get his hands to do two different things simultaneously, I’m in awe of anyone who can even play an instrument without having to stop every measure to check their finger position. So to combine poetry and musicality into a three-to-four-minute examination of the human condition—or even just an exhortation to find one’s way to a dance floor—is an art form that leaves me slack-jawed with amazement. As recently as this past Friday, I’ve sat in The Blue Door in Oklahoma City and watched, teary-eyed, as songwriters have woven their verses in the air.

I like songwriting so much that, back when CDs and liner notes were a thing, I regularly read the liner notes of a record before listening to it. I wanted to see who the artist thanked, who played with them, and who wrote the songs. So with this practice a part of my music-consumption habits since I was a kid, I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of Tommy Collins.

Luckily, the City of Bethany and the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society have my back—they’ve just erected a street sign on Route 66 near Council Road to honor this Nashville legend:

Oklahoma native and Nashville legend Tommy Collins recently got a sign in Bethany bragging about being his hometown. Photo courtesy Oklahoma City/County Historical Society

The man who became Tommy Collins—his stage name came from the cocktail—was born Leonard Raymond Sipes in Bethany in 1930. He first made his name as a radio performer in Oklahoma City, at a time when Wanda Jackson was making a splash on the local scene as well. After serving in the Marines, he went to California, where he was instrumental in the creation of what came to be known as the Bakersfield Sound—so instrumental, in fact, that Buck Owens was a member of Collins’ band (though you’d think it’d be the other way around). One of his earliest hit songs was “If You Ain’t Lovin’ (You Ain’t Livin’),” which Faron Young took to number two on the Billboard County Chart in 1954. You probably know it better as George Strait’s fifteenth Number-One hit, released in 1988:

But as often is the case, the business of show was hard on Tommy, and in 1957, he had a religious conversion, quit the music business, and entered seminary. After spending the next few years in full-time ministry, he returned to the charts as both artist and songwriter. He befriended Merle Haggard, who took his songs “The Roots of My Raising” and “Carolyn” to the top of the country charts:

They were such good buddies, in fact, that Merle even wrote a song about him, called “Leonard” after his given name:

When “Leonard” became a hit in 1981, it renewed interest in Collins’ work, and he signed a new publishing deal with Mel Tillis, another country legend who took his song “New Patches” up the charts in 1984:

“New Patches” also was recorded by George Jones in 1987, the Osborne Brothers in 1996, and Charley Pride in 2017. Tommy also had some chart hits of his own, including “I Guess I’m Crazy,” “It Tickles,” and “If You Can’t Bite, Don’t Growl:”

Tommy was signed as a songwriter by Ricky Skaggs Music in 1993, and he was named to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999, only a few short months before his death in March 2000 at the age of sixty-nine. And now, as travelers head down Route 66 through Collins’ hometown, they can see his name, pull up some of the great country tunes he brought to the world, and have a little piece of Bethany along for the rest of the trip.

Written By

Nathan Gunter

A sixth-generation Oklahoman, Weatherford native, and Westmoore High School graduate, Nathan Gunter is the magazine's editor-in-chief. When he's not editor-in-chiefing, Nate enjoys live music, running, working out, gaming, cooking, and random road trips with no particular destination in mind. He holds degrees from Wake Forest University and the University of Oklahoma. He learned how to perform poetry from Maya Angelou; how to appreciate Italian art from Terisio Pignatti; comedy writing from Doug Marlette; how to make coconut cream pie from his great-grandma; and how not to approach farm dogs from trial and error. A seminary dropout, he lives just off Route 66 in Oklahoma City.