Remembering 2024’s Music Losses: Terry Ree

Tweet

Today’s music entry could be on either side (honestly, as Chita Rivera was in a number of musicals, she could have been on either side of the ledger as well), but I discovered him on a music show (Nashville Now on the old Nashville Network), so that’s why he’s featured on the music side. I wish he wasn’t on this list (which, of course, is true of all of these individuals), because I really loved these guys. Terry Ree “The Indian and the White Guy.” Two 18-year-olds met at Black Hills State University in South Dakota, and a lifelong friendship and comedy act was born. Bruce Williams, the “white guy” and usually the punch-line man teamed up with Terry Ree, a full-blooded Crow Creek Sioux. At first it was just music, but they quickly incorporated comedy into the set, and a legendary act was born. They played mostly casinos, schools, and nightclubs, so you may not have heard of them. However, doing that for 55 years will eventually get you noticed by some people…like TNN. They had a regular spot on a cooking show and made several appearances on Nashville Now. We call things like this “politically incorrect,” and they were. Bruce always took digs at Terry’s American Indian heritage, and Ree quickly gave it back with “you white people” lines. (One of his great lines [although it was hardly original] was regarding Daylight Saving Time: “You white people think you can cut the top off a blanket, sew it on the bottom, and make a longer blanket.” ) They skewered their ethnicities, each other, and everyone, and left everyone laughing. In May of 2024 Terry Ree announced that the act was retiring. That was later discovered to be due to the fact that he was ill. A week before Ree’s death, Williams said he went to see his longtime friend and they had “a good ol’ prayer meeting and sing-along.” Yes, you’ve probably never heard of them. They always left me in stitches, and Terry’s death left me heartbroken. Terry Ree Born 1948, Huron, South Dakota Died December 17, 2024, Hendersonville, Tennessee (illness) (age 75) HALL OF FAME: South Dakota Rock and Roll Williams and Ree doing what they did best, making people laugh in a performance of the classic song “Running Bear”: