Ken Curtis, an American singer and actor, was born Curtis Wain Gates in Lamar, Colorado. The youngest of three boys, Curtis spent his first ten years living on a ranch on Muddy Creek in eastern Bent County. His family moved to Las Animas in 1926 when his father was elected sheriff. From 1927 to 1931 the family lived in the residence below the Bent County jail. His mother cooked for the prisoners.
Curtis graduated from Bent County High School in 1935. He was quarterback of the high school football team and played clarinet in the school band. His high school class is credited with starting the Santa Fe Trail Day parade in 1934. Though it was almost canceled the next year — reportedly because Curtis, dressed as an Indian, wore very little clothing – the parade continues today and is the longest continuously-running high school-sponsored event in the country. He attended Colorado College but left after a short time to pursue a music career.
In 1941, Curtis joined the Tommy Dorsey Band and succeeded Frank Sinatra as its lead vocalist. It was Dorsey who suggested that Gates change his name to Ken Curtis. After serving in the army during World War II, Curtis joined the Sons of the Pioneers. He was lead singer for their hits “Room Full of Roses” and “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” In 1981 he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame.
Curtis remains best known for his role as Festus Haggen, the scruffy, cantankerous and illiterate deputy on the 1955-1975 CBS Western television series, Gunsmoke. As Curtis told it, he patterned the character after a man from his Las Animas childhood, Cedar Jack, who lived 15 miles south of town and made a living cutting cedar fence posts. Jack came to town often and usually ended up drunk and in Curtis’ father’s jail.