Violet Hensley (1916 to 2026) was an Arkansas fiddler and fiddle maker known as the Whittling Fiddler. She built her first fiddle at 15 and her 73rd decades later, played at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, for more than 50 years, and made her Grand Ole Opry debut at 99. The National Fiddler Hall of Fame inducted her in 2018 at age 101. She died in Yellville, Arkansas, on August 7, 2026, at 109.
Why Hensley matters
Hensley was the rare fiddler who made her own instrument from a tree, then played it on national television. She carried the Ozark fiddling she learned in the 1920s into the 2020s, and she showed decades of theme park visitors what a mountain fiddler looked and sounded like. For a picker, she is proof that a plain dance tune played in time on a homemade fiddle can hold a crowd for half a century.
Life and career
Violet Brumley was born on October 21, 1916, near Mount Ida in Montgomery County, Arkansas. Her father, George Washington Brumley, farmed and made fiddles, a craft he had taken up at 14. She learned from him and built her first fiddle for herself at 15, then three more before she turned 18. She married Adren Hensley in 1935. Raising nine children took her away from the workbench for 27 years.
In 1961 she went back to building and repairing fiddles. She used native Ozark woods, favoring wild cherry, maple, spruce, dogwood, and persimmon for different parts, and she numbered every instrument. She built 69 more, for a lifetime total of 73. In 1967, at age 50, she began demonstrating fiddle making and playing at Silver Dollar City, and the family moved to Yellville, Arkansas, in 1968, where she kept her workshop.
Television found her. She appeared on The Beverly Hillbillies in 1969, on The Art Linkletter Show in 1970, on Captain Kangaroo in 1977, and on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in 1992. Charles Kuralt featured her on On the Road in 1973, and National Geographic ran a story on her in 1970. With her husband, daughters Lewonna and Sandra, and son Calvin she recorded Old-Time Hoedowns in 1974, playing her fiddle number 11 on tunes like Soldier’s Joy, Liberty, and Boil Them Cabbage Down. Old Time Fiddle Tunes came out on Red, White and Blue Grass Records, then The Whittling Fiddler and Family in 1983 and Family Treasures in 2004.
Silver Dollar City gave her its Living Treasure Award in 1997 and put her in its hall of fame, and she made her 41st straight appearance at its National Crafts Festival in 2007. The Arkansas Arts Council named her an Arkansas Living Treasure in 2004. Her husband died in 1997. In 2014 she published an autobiography, Whittlin’ and Fiddlin’ My Own Way, written with Randall Franks. On March 30, 2018, at age 101, the National Fiddler Hall of Fame inducted her, and on April 14, 2018, she played the Grand Ole Opry for the third time. Failing eyesight ended her complete fiddle builds late in life, but she kept making parts and teaching. She died on August 7, 2026, at age 109.
Playing style
Hensley played the Ozark dance repertoire she grew up with: Turkey in the Straw, Soldier’s Joy, Buffalo Gals, Eighth of January, Old Joe Clark, Arkansas Traveler, and waltzes. On her family records the fiddle carries the melody over flat-top guitars, with her daughter Lewonna adding rhythm on a jawbone. The tunes are played plain and at a tempo for dancing. Her recording of Lost Indian points to the older Ozark side of her repertoire. She played her own fiddles, and Old-Time Hoedowns credits her instrument by number.
Her fiddles are part of the sound. She built them from Ozark woods and carved and finished each one by hand, which is where the Whittling Fiddler name came from.
Influences and legacy
Hensley learned from her father, who learned in the Ozarks in the years before recording. Her legacy runs through the family band, through the students she taught to build and play, and through the crowds that watched her at Silver Dollar City. Rounder put her on Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks, Volume One in 1999 and The Art of Traditional Fiddle in 2000, beside older source fiddlers. Kansas City fiddler Betse Ellis has performed with her. In the National Fiddler Hall of Fame she sits with Bob Wills, Jana Jae, Jay Ungar, and Buddy Spicher.
Signature tunes and songs
Lost Indian Soldier’s Joy Boil Them Cabbage Down Arkansas Traveler Old Joe Clark Golden Slippers Liberty.
Essential recordings
Old-Time Hoedowns, with the Hensley Family (John’s Recording Studio, 1974) Old Time Fiddle Tunes (Red, White and Blue Grass Records) Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks, Volume One, various artists (Rounder, 1999)
Awards and honors
Silver Dollar City Living Treasure Award (1997) Arkansas Living Treasure, Arkansas Arts Council (2004) National Fiddler Hall of Fame (2018) Silver Dollar City Hall of Fame
Watch and listen
A 2026 KARK news feature filmed at her home in Yellville, with Hensley fiddling at 109. Watch her bow hand and listen for the dance tempo.
Kansas City PBS films Betse Ellis and Hensley playing together. Listen to how the older fiddler keeps the tune plain while the younger one follows.
What to learn from Hensley
Learn Soldier’s Joy the way she recorded it in 1974, at a tempo a dancer could hold for ten minutes. The technique to steal is her steadiness. Ozark house-party fiddling was about the dance, not the solo, and Hensley kept that job for 50 years on a theme park stage. Play a tune 12 times through with a guitar and see if the tempo on the last pass matches the first. That is the whole skill, and it is harder than any variation.
Sources
Violet Brumley Hensley (1916 to 2026), Encyclopedia of Arkansas Violet Hensley, the ‘Whittlin’ Fiddler’ and Silver Dollar City legend, dies at 109, KY3 Violet Hensley, Wikipedia Yellville’s Whittlin’ Fiddler Violet Hensley and Family, Old-Time Hoedowns, Discogs Violet Hensley, Old Time Fiddle Tunes, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more old-time source fiddlers. Melvin Wine and Tommy Jarrell carried the same kind of home tradition in West Virginia and North Carolina, and Jana Jae and Jay Ungar share her place in the National Fiddler Hall of Fame.