Ford's River of No Return an Insightful Look at Tennessee Ernie Ford and His Wife Betty

I grew up listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford's music. "Sixteen Tons" was Ernie's trademark song, written by Merle Travis, and became a hit for Ernie in 1955. "River of No Return", written By Ernie's oldest son Jeffrey Buckner Ford, paints an in depth portrait of his parents, Ernie Ford and his first wife, Betty Hemminger and their lives offstage. Ernie's public image could not be more different from his private image; to begin with, Jeffrey tells his readers that Ernie himself was not a man driven by ambition. In fact, Ernie more or less just went with the flow, from his early days in radio in the 1940's which eventually brought him to television, having his own television show, appearing three times on "I Love Lucy", and recording over thirty LP's during his career. It was when he was most famous that Ernie decided to drop out of the limelight and opt for a quieter life outside of Hollywood, but the increasing substance abuse on Betty's part eventually drove Ernie to wind up abusing alcohol himself. Ernie's unexpected rise to wealth and fame exacerbated the strained relationship between him and Betty, who was a talented artist and loved painting but never received any encouragement from Ernie. Likewise, Betty did not know how to encourage Ernie's talent, either, but she managed to become a self educated person but never famous in her own right like her husband.

Jeffrey describes the good times he and his younger brother Brion shared with the family when they were together with both parents, whether it was on vacation, or going together to church on Sundays. Jeffrey also shares memories of Brion, who once had an accident on their backyard trampoline and hit his head, causing Betty to drag him to the hospital for stitches. As an adult, Brion's singing voice was so similar to Ernie's that he could sing just like him. As much as Brion was encouraged by his father to have a singing career, he never quite made it, but still hopes to this day he might be able to repeat the success his father had.