Thomas Edd Mayfield

Mayfield was born in Dawn in Deaf Smith County, southwest of Amarillo, to William Fletcher Mayfield (died 1952) and the former Penelope Drake (died 1937). The family was involved in music, rodeo, and ranching. Mayfield served in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

The Mayfield Brothers were offered a recording contract, but turned it down because of the business of the family's Green Valley Ranch. In the summer of 1951, Bill Monroe's guitarist, Carter Stanley, left the band, and Monroe, who had heard of Mayfield, offered him the vacant slot as guitarist in the Bluegrass Boys. At the time he joined the Bluegrass Boys, Edd Mayfield was described as "a handsome, tough-as-barbed-wire cowpuncher, who literally grew up on a ranch, who could ride hard, lasso accurately, and literally toss and tie up a bull. . . and had the wiry strength of a gymnast."[1]

On October 28, 1951, Mayfield made the first of his 19 recordings with Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, but he left the group within a year and was replaced by Jimmy Martin. In 1954, when Martin had left the band, Mayfield rejoined the Bluegrass Boys. A few months later he again quit.[2]

In early 1958, Mayfield returned to Monroe for the last time. He contracted leukemia, became ill while on the road with the band, and within 3 days of being stricken, died at a hospital in Bluefield, West Virginia. He was 32.[3] Services for Mayfield were held at the First Baptist Church in Dimmitt. Burial was in Castro County Memorial Cemetery. Mayfield was married to the former Jo McLain and the couple had two sons, Freddie and Carl. After Mayfield's death, his sons were raised by his brother Smokey.