Faye "Cockeye" Brown's famous shoeshine stand
Donated by Tracy Bell from the collection of her father, Galen Edward Watson. The shoeshine stand was in Terry Reed’s barber shop on Third Street and then Fourth Street, until he gave it to Watson in the late 20th century. Watson helped Reed built his barber shop. Brown also shined shoes in the Best Yet Barber Shop, next to Cass Drugstore (on Third, off Live Oak) in bad weather and on the street for 0.50 in good weather.
Faye Brown, the son of Hattie Brown and stepson of Herbert Pickett, was a famous band leader in central Texas. He also shined shoes at the Best Yet Barber Shop, operated by Tad Parsons and later Hack Taylor. Many people remember how he would “talk and shine the shoes with a snap of that shine rag and swish of the buffing brushes” (Dalton Dale Vann, Sr.). While “he could talk like a sailor, Cockeye was a kind man” (Hubert Pickett, Jr.). He played several instruments and formed the band, Cockeye and His Aces, in the 1920s with several friends and relatives. They played for numerous dances over the next forty plus years. He and his wife Florine left Lampasas in the 1970s and moved to Colorado to be near their daughter, Alla Faye. Cockeye and the Aces are featured on the mural, “Small Town . . . Big Sound” on Key Avenue. He died in the late 1970s.
Faye Brown, the son of Hattie Brown and stepson of Herbert Pickett, was a famous band leader in central Texas. He also shined shoes at the Best Yet Barber Shop, operated by Tad Parsons and later Hack Taylor. Many people remember how he would “talk and shine the shoes with a snap of that shine rag and swish of the buffing brushes” (Dalton Dale Vann, Sr.). While “he could talk like a sailor, Cockeye was a kind man” (Hubert Pickett, Jr.). He played several instruments and formed the band, Cockeye and His Aces, in the 1920s with several friends and relatives. They played for numerous dances over the next forty plus years. He and his wife Florine left Lampasas in the 1970s and moved to Colorado to be near their daughter, Alla Faye. Cockeye and the Aces are featured on the mural, “Small Town . . . Big Sound” on Key Avenue. He died in the late 1970s.
