Monument to ‘Hills of Home’ composer Oscar Fox settles in at Lakeside Park
'The Hills of Home’ monument commemorating composer Oscar Fox awaits its unveiling at 3 p.m. Nov. 3 by the Floyd Tillman statue at Lakeside Park in Marble Falls. The monument was originally placed on U.S. 281 just south and west of the bridge sometime in the 1960s. It was pushed down the hill during road work in the 1980s. Courtesy photo
“The Hills of Home,” a historical granite memorial to composer Oscar Fox, will be unveiled at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, in its third and final site at Lakeside Park, 305 Buena Vista Drive in Marble Falls.
The unveiling is hosted by the city of Marble Falls, The Falls on the Colorado Museum, and members of the Fuchs/Fox family, who originally commissioned the monument in the 1960s and worked with the Texas Department of Transportation for its original placement at the Lake Marble Falls overlook on U.S. 281 just south and west of the bridge.
Fox was a well-known musical composer and choral arranger, most famous for his song “The Hills of Home,” inspired by the view from that overlook, and “Whoopee Ti Yi Yo (Git Along, Little Dogies)” among 50 others. He was born in Burnet County in 1879 and died in 1961.
The monument commemorating Fox, the “Cowboy Composer” of Fuchs family fame in Cottonwood Shores, joined a 1936 Centennial Marker in the same location where TxDOT built a roadside park with picnic tables.
Then came growth and the need to widen the highway. The picnic area was demolished and the two stones pushed down the hill sometime in the 1980s. By then, the brass plates had been stolen off of the 1936 marker, so it was harder to identify. It was only recently found, restored, and moved to the Burnet County Courthouse.
“The Hills of Home” monument, with its stone engravings, was recovered during the 2008 construction of La Quinta Inn on FM 2147 just under the U.S. 281 overlook. Inn owner Paki Patel placed it near the parking lot so it was once again on public display. Eventually, a vehicle knocked it over and obscured its view. Debbie Holloway, a founder and organizer of the Legends of the Falls historical hayride noticed it one day, and she, Patel, and The Falls on the Colorado Museum went to work to find it a new home.
Together, they lobbied for the stone to be placed near the Floyd Tillman monument in Lakeside Park since both were local musicians. The city agreed.
The public is invited to the unveiling, which is the day before the Legends of the Falls festival in Cottonwood Shores featuring, among other Fuchs/Fox historical figures, the one and only Oscar Fox portrayed by Jim Maynard of Las Cruces, New Mexico.