Austin music icon James White, Broken Spoke's owner, dies at 81

James White, owner of South Austin's legendary Broken Spoke dance hall and a towering figure in Austin's live music scene, has died after a recent illness, his family confirmed Sunday. He was 81.

White, who had been suffering from congestive heart failure, died at his South Austin home, according to his daughter, Ginny Peacock.

"This is a huge loss to Austin," she said.

White founded the Broken Spoke on South Lamar Boulevard in 1964 and spent more than 50 years turning it into one of the city's best-known venues.

"He gave us a place to perform the music that we wanted to do in the atmosphere that we wanted — a Texas dance hall," said Ray Benson, who met White in 1973 when White booked his band at the Broken Spoke. "James was one of the most magnanimous and generally nice people — with a capital ‘N’ — in this world." 

'The Don of Dancehalls is gone':Musicians, artists remember Broken Spoke owner James White

Peacock said her father, a fifth-generation Texan, wanted the broken Spoke to be "a place like no other, where people could come and listen to country music and have a good time."

Other Texas musicians praised White on Sunday. One of his cousins, Monte Warden, said it wasn't until his band the Wagoneers headlined at the Broken Spoke in 1994 that his father finally stopped asking him when he was going to go to college. 

"Every major country star in the last half-century played at the Broken Spoke," Warden said. Those stars included Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks, Warden said. 

White was talkative, gregarious and "never knew a stranger," Warden said. 

"He always wore a cowboy hat, a western shirt, jeans and boots," he said. "He looked like a honky-tonk owner out of central casting. He knew a lot of people's only experience of a honky-tonk in Texas was going to be at the Broken Spoke."

White was also extremely patriotic, Warden said. Each time the Wagoneers performed at the Broken Spoke, White would bring out his family's American flag, Warden said.

"He would lead 600 people at the packed Broken Spoke in the Pledge of Allegiance,"  Warden said.

Austin musician Alvin Crow said White was one of his best friends. "He put rednecks and longhairs together for the first time at a dance hall in Austin," Crow said. 

"James was one of the kindest people I ever met," Crow said. "He was always interested in people and people enjoying themselves and having a good time." 

Another one of White's friends, Don Green, said he first met White in the 1970s as a customer at the Broken Spoke. "I think what always struck me as the most interesting thing about him was that he really got to live his dream," Green said.

"His dream when he got out of the Army was to build a honky-tonk in Austin, his hometown, and he did it from scratch in 1964. ... I think all of us that went to the Broken Spoke just felt honored to be part of that dream with him."

A documentary was made in 2016 about the Broken Spoke called "Honky Tonk Heaven: The Legend of the Broken Spoke."

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Your memories and photos:50 years of the Broken Spoke

White is survived by his wife, Annetta, and their two daughters, Terri White and Ginny White-Peacock, along with several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

Born on April 12, 1939, White spent his early childhood just south of the Broken Spoke's site, in an old family home near what is now Burger Center. The land had been in the family since his great-great-grandfather, John Eaton Campbell, traveled to Texas from Tennessee in 1851.

White attended Becker Elementary and Fulmore Junior High and graduated from Travis High School in 1957.

After high school, James joined his father in California, working in missile and aircraft factories there and in Nebraska. In 1961, he joined the Army. After leaving the military in 1964, he decided to open a honky-tonk. In a 2014 interview with the American-Statesman, White said Sept. 25, 1964, was the ground-breaking date at the site of an old lumber yard along South Lamar on land owned by local businessman Jay Johnson.

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White started establishing the Broken Spoke's honky-tonk bona fides by booking local country bands on the weekends. D.G. Burrow & the Western Melodies were the first band hired to play at the Broken Spoke, which initially existed only in the space that is now the front restaurant room.

White and his wife, Annetta, were married at the Broken Spoke in 1966, and that same year, James booked western swing legends Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys for the first of three shows over the ensuing three years. 

In 1967, White booked a songwriter out of Nashville named Willie Nelson to play at the Broken Spoke, paying him $800. Future country legend George Strait and his crew were also a fixture at the Broken Spoke for a number of years in the 1970s and 1980s.

Additional material from American-Statesman staff writer Peter Blackstock.