Abilene Reporter-News
July 1, 1966

'Slim Willet' Dies at 46

Winston Lee Moore, 46, better known as Slim Willet, song writer and owner of western music radio station KCAD here, died at 7:10 a.m. Friday in Hendrick Memorial Hospital, where he had been a patient since Monday.

Funeral arrangements are pending at Elliott's Funeral Home.

Willet, who gained national prominence in 1952 when he composed "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes," had been in the hospital's intensive care unit since an apparent heart attack about 9 p.m. Monday. He was in the hospital for treatment of a respiratory ailment at the time of the attack.

The popular disc jockey, who adopted his pseudonym of Slim Willet while student manager of KHSU, the Hardin-Simmons University campus radio station, became general manager of KCAD in June, 1964 after a 15-year career with other Abilene radio stations.

"Little ole Slim," as the hefty guitar picker called himself, was a 1949 graduate of H-SU, where he was feature editor of the Brand newspaper and an active member of the dramatics department in addition to managing the radio station.

Born Dec. 1, 1919, at Victor, in Erath County, he moved to Clyde with his parents in 1935 and attended the Clyde schools, graduating from high school there in 1935.

He married Jimmie Crenshaw at Clyde, Aug. 20, 1928, and later served in World War II before returning to Abilene for college.

At the time he entered H-SU as a freshman in 1947, he had a son in the fourth grade. By taking heavy semester loads, he finished the four-year course in 31 months, receiving his BA with a major in journalism and minor in speech and education.

Willet joked that he wrote the hit song, "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes," one night when he was playing his guitar and "thinking about a lonesome GI over in Korea and what he'd sing to his sweetheart."

The song eventually climbed to the number one spot on the nation's popularity charts,a nd the original manuscript is included in a Library of Congress permanent collection.

He was a member of the Baptist Church.

Survivors are his wife of the home, 817 Leggett Dr., two sons, Ted Moore of Houston and Tim Moore of the home; one grandson, Tommy Moore of Houston; two sisters, Mrs. William Gayle of Abilene and Mrs. Marie Cass of Canada; and one brother, Omar of Marlin, Tex.