Hank Snow Birthplace — Brooklyn, Nova Scotia

Clarence Eugene Snow — Hank Snow, the Singing Ranger — was born on May 9, 1914, in Brooklyn, Queens County, Nova Scotia, into a family that fell apart when his parents separated and he was placed in an abusive home. He ran away to sea at twelve, working on fishing boats for several years, taught himself guitar, and was inspired by Jimmie Rodgers — whose records he saved up to buy — to pursue music. He became a Canadian radio star before eventually breaking into the American market in the late 1940s, settling in Nashville and joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1950.

Snow's breakthrough in America came with "I'm Movin' On" (1950) — a train song in the Jimmie Rodgers tradition that spent 21 weeks at number one on the country charts, a record that stood for decades. He followed it with "The Golden Rocket," "Rhumba Boogie," and dozens of other hits over a career that spanned six decades. He was also responsible for introducing Elvis Presley to Colonel Tom Parker: Snow and Parker were initially partners in a talent management firm, and it was through that connection that Parker first heard Elvis and subsequently became his manager.

Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, has a Hank Snow Country Music Centre that documents his life and career. The museum holds his ornate Nudie suits, his guitars, his tour vehicles, and extensive memorabilia. Snow was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1979. He died on December 20, 1999, in Madison, Tennessee, at the age of 85 — one of the longest careers in the history of country music, rooted in a hardscrabble Nova Scotia childhood.