A Historic Event For A Legend As Big As Texas:
It all begins with an idea.
Cindy Walker Days is the annual fundraising event to promote and preserve the legacy of Mexia’s own, Cindy Walker. A multi-day music and songwriters festival that attracts thousands to the small town of Mexia, Texas where Cindy lived for more than 5 decades.
Cindy Walker was a Country Music Hall of Fame Songwriter whose hits have become standards including, “You Don’t Know Me,” sung by Eddy Arnold and recorded by Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and used in many motion pictures. More hits include “Dream Baby” recorded by Roy Orbison and her Western swing songs recorded by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Ernest Tubb and more can be heard whenever a Western swing band takes the stage. Cindy is in the National Cowgirls Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. She was the first woman elected to the Country Music Association Board.
“To make a long story short” as Cindy would say, songwriting was her true love. She did most of her work inside her Mexia home on Brooks Street in an upstairs writing studio on her hand painted pink typewriter.
In 2022, the Cindy Walker Foundation was established to purchase and maintain her historic home on Brooks Street as a place where music can once again fill its rooms whether with music lessons for area youth, songwriter retreats or Christmas carols being sung during Cindy’s favorite time of the year. New music as well as a new archive was discovered when the home was purchased in 2022 by the CWF.
The restoration of the Cindy Walker Home is underway and the annual Cindy Walker Days is its premier fundraiser. Come check it out! It’s held surrounding the birthday of Cindy Walker on the third weekend in July.