XPost: rec.music.country.western, alt.music.country.classic   
   From: gcmccoury@yahoo.com   
      
   Burbank (AP) - Paul Henning, who created the iconic 1960s TV show "The   
   Beverly Hillbillies" and wrote its theme song, died Friday March 25,   
   2005 at the age of 93.   
      
   Henning, who lived in Toluca Lake, died in a Burbank hospital of natural   
   causes. He had been sick for some time, his daughter Carol said.   
      
   Henning was born on a farm in Missouri on Sept. 16, 1911, and grew up in   
   Independence. As a teenager, he worked behind the soda fountain at   
   Brown's Drugstore, where he met Harry Truman, who advised the young boy   
   to become a lawyer, his daughter said.   
      
   He graduated from Kansas City School of Law but soon went to work   
   writing for radio. He wrote for "Fibber McGee and Molly" and "The George   
   Burns and Gracie Allen Show," among others.   
      
   After writing for television for several years, he created "The Beverly   
   Hillbillies," which debuted on CBS in 1962.   
      
   Henning created the show based on his encounters with residents during   
   camping trips in the Ozarks with the Boy Scouts, his daughter said.   
      
   The CBS series starring Buddy Ebsen as the patriarch Jed drew as many as   
   60 million viewers at its peak and ran until 1971.   
      
   Henning also wrote the words and music to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett,"   
   which was sung by Jerry Scoggins while Nashville bluegrass stars Lester   
   Flatt and Earl Scruggs played guitar and banjo.   
      
   The ballad began, "Come and listen to a story about a man name Jed/ a   
   poor mountaineer who barely kept his family fed/ then one day he was   
   shootin' for some food/ and up through the ground came a bubblin' crude."   
      
   In 1963, he created "Petticoat Junction," a "Hillbillies" spinoff.   
      
   Although he is sometimes credited with creating the TV show "Green   
   Acres," his daughter said Henning helped the show's creator Jay Sommers   
   cast the show and served as its executive producer.   
      
   Henning also worked in films, writing the 1964 film "Bedtime Story,"   
   starring Marlon Brando and David Niven. The film later served as the   
   basis for the 1988 "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."   
      
   Later in his life, Henning and his wife, Ruth, donated land near   
   Branson, Missouri, to the state for a conservation area.   
      
   Henning is survived by two daughters, a son and two grandsons.   
      
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