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{{Infobox person
|name=Herbert Earl Mayfield
(American bluegrass musician)
|nationality=[[United States|American]]
|birth_date=December 20, 1920
|death_date=May 29, 2008 (aged 87)
|birth_place=Erick, Beckham County,<br>[[Oklahoma]], [[United States|USA]]
|death_place=[[Amarillo]], [[Texas]]<br>
'''Resting place''':<br>
Hart Cemetery in Hart in Castro County
|religion=[[Southern Baptist]]
|spouse= Dorothy McLain Mayfield (born 1931; married 1952-2008, his death)<br>
'''Children''':<br>
Bryan C. Mayfield<br>
Britt Mayfield<br>
Marla Morgan Wilson<br>
Three grandchildren<br>
'''Notes''':<br>
*Herbert Mayfield is remembered for his [[music]]al talents with the '''Mayfield Brothers,'', but he earned his living as a welder for [[cattle]] feedlots in weat [[Texas]].<br>
* Mayfield was active in civic affairs in his adopted hometown of Dimmitt, Texas, having been president of the rodeo association and a member of the fair board.<br>
* Mayfield and his brother, [[Smokey Mayfield]], both fought in the [[Battle of the Bulge]] during [[World War II]].
}}
'''Herbert Earl Mayfield''' (December 20, 1920 – May 29, 2008) was a [[bluegrass]] [[music]]ian and a member of the Mayfield Brothers band of West [[Texas]]. Playing the [[mandolin]] and the [[guitar]], Mayfield played alongside his brothers, Thomas Edd Mayfield and [[Smokey Mayfieldd]].
In the late 1940s, the Mayfield Brothers were warm-up [[musician]]s in [[Lubbock]] and [[Amarillo]] for [[Tennessee "Ernie" Ford]], the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Hank Snow, and other [[Country music|country]] groups.
After [[World War II]], the trio went on the circuit playing Bluegrass until Edd left the band to join [[Bill Monroe]] and the Bluegrass Boys.<ref name="obit">Herbert E. Mayfield obituary, ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,'' June 1, 2008.</ref>
==Early life==
Mayfield was born in [[rural]] Erick in Beckham County in southwestern [[Oklahoma]] to William Fletcher Mayfield (1881-1952), and the former Penelope Ruth Drake (1887-1937). In January 1931, he moved with his family to Dimmitt in Castro County near Lubbock. He graduated from Dimmitt High School and was awarded a [[basketball]] scholarship to college. During [[World War II]], Mayfield served in the [[United States Army]] Air Corps]], the forerunner to the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]]. He participated in troop movements during the landings at [[Normandy]], [[France]] , and in the [[Battle of the Bulge]], in which his brother Smokey also fought.<ref name="obit"/>
All of the Mayfield family played musical instruments, beginning with the [[mandolin]]. Herbert Mayfield recalled rushing from his [[ranch]] chores to devote time to practicing music.
==Marriage and later life==
In 1951, Mayfield married the former Dorothy McLain in Hart in Castro County. Active in community affairs, he was a former president of the Dimmitt Rodeo Association and was a member of the Fair Board. He was also affiliated with the Panhandle Blue Grass Association. He was a [[Baptist]]. Two weeks prior to Mayfield's death, the Blue Grass Museum in Owensboro, [[Kentucky]], interviewed him in Dimmitt in preparation for a documentary film on the Mayfield musical family.<ref name="obit"/>
For much of his adult life, Mayfield was a welder for [[cattle]] feedlots. He and his wife supported student [[scholarship]]s for those pursuing the study of Bluegrass music at South Plains College in Levelland in Hockley County west of Lubbock. South Plains honored Herbert and Smokey Mayfield in a special ceremony in 1989 as pioneers of Bluegrass music.<ref name=obit/> Susan Dailey, the recipient of a Mayfield scholarship in 1993, recalled Mayfield as "an inspiration to me as a mandolin student.... The stories of his early musical years on the Green Valley Ranch also fascinated me as a musician and as a visual [[artist]].... I feel fortunate to have been acquainted with Herb. He was a wonderful man.... "<ref>Susan Dailey, Herbert Mayfield Guest Book, Colonial Funeral Home, Dimmitt, Texas, June 2, 2008.</ref>
==Death==
Mayfield died at the age of eighty-seven of renal failure in an Amarillo hospital.<ref name="obit"/> Some three months later, his brother Smokey died of a [[heart attack]], a complication from neuropathy. Edd Mayfield died of [[leukemia]] in 1958 at the age of thirty-two in Bluefield, [[West Virginia]], while he was on tour with Bill Monroe.<ref name="obit"/> Services for Herb Mayfield were held on June 1, 2008, at the First Baptist Church of Dimmitt. Burial was in Hart Cemetery in Hart.<ref name="obit"/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayfield, Herbert}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Musicians]]
[[Category:Singers]]
[[Category:Southern Baptists]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army]]