Bedford, Lawrence County, Indiana

 

This article was furnished by : Peyton Davis & ladysundance Typed By William & Dana Luttrell Copied from Bedford Daily Times Saturday, November 10, 1956

The Biggest Man In Bedford

Tiny Basinger at 420 pounds is estimated to be the biggest man in Bedford. George W. Basinger, Jr., better known as Tiny is not only one of the most interesting person you'll ever want to meet, but he's belived to be the biggest man in Bedford. Tiny tips the scales at 420 pounds, has a 66-inch waist, wears a size 16 shoe, and is 6' 5 1/4"...but old age will settle you. During his 48 years, Tiny's been quite active. He's been a school teacher, football player, musician, coal miner, medical student, barber and writer. And his dad says he's very mechanial-minded and can fix almost anything. I work on cars, clocks, and fishing rods and other equipment, he explained, but I never mess with watches. That's too tedious. Tiny, was born in Cannelton, Indiana, July 23, 1908. He has two sisters and two brothers, but he's the largest one in the family. His oldest sister, Mary, 52, who lives in Pasedena, California, weighs about 375 pounds and the father states that she can walk under Tiny's arm. The remaining children, as well as the father, are all of average weight. The mother, who died in 1950, was also of normal size. Tiny weighed 6 and 1/2 pounds at birth, and his size was normal until he was about 2 years old. That's when his dad noticed he was filling out a lot, and gradually gaining a few pounds all the time. He started to school in Cannelton, but the family moved to Black Fork, Ohio, a few years later, where he graduated from High School in 1925. When he was 10 years old he weighed 275 pounds, and about 300 when he got out of high school. Tiny's teaching experience occurred even before he left high school. He taught 22 students in a backwoods country school on Boyd County, Kentucky, for one term, and he was paid $300 half on Christmas, and the rest in February, he recalled. He wanted to be a doctor and spent six weeks in summer school at Rio Grande College in Ohio after High School graduation, but he decided to leave school to work and help support the family.     Tiny also went to barber college in Portsmouth, Ohio, and helped his dad run a barber shop for about 7 years, in 1930. They moved from Ohio to Hawsville, Kentucky, and operated a restaurant and barber shop there for about 3 years. When World War II started, he went to work at Crane Naval Ammunition Depot in a loading fill area, handling shells, bombs, and projectiles. We were sworn to secrecy at Crane, he remarked, so whenever anyone ask what I did down there I told them I was building houses. The Basinger family moved to Bedford during the war and in 1945 Tiny's dad opened the bait shop. His love for fishing prompted him to venture into the business. In the meantime, Tiny was working for Indiana LImestone Company, operating a small garage near the house, and working briefly for a sheet metal works firm in Indianapolis. About 1950 he joined his dad in the fish bait business because I found out I could make alot more money. I had to give up alot of the garage work, Tiny declared, because I was too big to crawl under the cars. Tiny does all the cooking for the two of them, and eats about twice as much as the average person each day. For breakfast he'll usually eat 3 hot dogs, 4 eggs, a big cup of coffee, butter and maybe 2 peanut butter sandwiches. Then later in the afternoon, he'll have another pretty large meal. I've been on a diet for 10 years myself, explained the father, who also mentioned that Tiny's had good health all his life. And he still gains a little weight all the time. Mr. Basinger explained. Tiny's hobbies are music and fishing, he says he gets up about 5, every morning and goes fishing about two times a week, because of his size, he doesn't do a great deal of walking, but usually takes a taxi wherever he wants to go. He spends alot of his evenings watching TV at his sister's house in Bedford, and likes to read especially westerns. The entire family are musicians, which explains Tiny's love for music. His father taught him to play several instruments, and the family formed a hillbilly band and played for county fairs, square dances, and other entertainments, up until about 5 years ago. We played all over southern Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Tennessee. We also played over radio stations in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and other states, and I was known as "Big Howdy". Even as far back as 1935, Tiny had three five piece bands entertaining around the Country. I now own a bass violin, three guitars, two banjos, two violins, and a ukelele. I can play anything thats got strings to it. Tiny "issued another of his many wonderful bits of philosophy when he stated that I want to marry a woman with a lot of money and one who's not afraid of fishing worms."

 

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© 2006 Geneaolgy Trails by Wayne Hinton