What We Didn't Know About Mel Tillis

We all know what a superstar and a legend Mel Tillis was in the country music world and in the entertainment industry as a whole. We could fill up many pages listing his accomplishments and accolades. We were very fortunate to have him as a dear friend of the Stuttering Foundation for many years, and he famously served as our 1998 national spokesman and honorary chairman.

While it was widely known that stuttering ran in Mel Tillis' family as both his father and brother also stuttered, many admirers of America’s most loved person who stuttered might be surprised at some interesting parts of his life that are little-known.

Mel’s musical talents are well known throughout the world, but what about his football talents? As a star halfback on his high school football team, Mel received tryout offers at the University of North Carolina and Florida State University, both of which were nationally ranked programs. He set his goals on making the team at Florida State and attended their summer camp but was not offered a scholarship or a spot on the team. Since most of his high school friends were enrolling at the University of Florida, he decided to enroll there and try to make the football team as a “walk on.” He stayed with the team for the entire tryout period, but ultimately did not make it. During the tryout camp, he became friends with two players, Rick Casares and Buford Long, both of whom would go on to have solid NFL careers.

Since football was his main interest in going to college, he only stayed at the University of Florida for one semester and left to pursue his music. However, in the typical good spirit of Mel Tillis, despite being cut from the team, he became a major supporter of University of Florida football and the school’s athletic programs in general, organizing a big country music fundraiser each year for the athletic department.

Besides music and football, Mel Tillis was deeply entrenched in another profession. In his hometown of Pahokee, Florida, the Tillis family had a well-known enterprise called the Tillis’ Hometown Bakery, where from an early age Mel worked alongside his father, his uncles and his cousins. From a young age, he learned to bake breads, muffins, donuts, pies, cookies and decorate fancy cakes.

He worked for the family business for his entire childhood and high school years, becoming a star baker while honing his musical skills. At age 20, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at the start of the Korean War and hoped that during this military service he could learn a new trade. He specifically did not tell the Air Force about his background as a baker as he wanted to move on to something else. After taking an aptitude test, the Air Force told him that they determined he would be of good service as a baker and were sending him to baking school. He spent his military service years as a baker. The country music star would tell people that when his father heard this news, his father never laughed so hard in his life.

While Mel Tillis was the most famous person who stuttered in the U.S. for decades, he was also the catalyst for the movement for civil rights for people who stutter. Just like Rosa Parks ignited the modern-day civil rights movement when she refused to give up her seat on the bus on Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, Mel Tillis inspired a watershed moment in the civil rights movement for people who stutter in the United States.

In 1972, Tillis was a regular cast member of the popular weekly CBS show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, which required him to speak lines. Many times, he was not fluent. After one show, a lady who was a regular viewer wrote to Campbell and said that having Tillis on the show with his stuttering set a bad example for children. The producers flagged the letter and showed it to Campbell, who was irate. On the next show, Campbell read the letter on the air with the introduction, “Here’s a letter from a lady who says that Mel Tillis’ stuttering is a bad influence on our young people and shouldn’t be allowed on television.” His answer to the woman’s letter was, “Why shouldn’t Mel Tillis be on television? They let Ray Charles be on.” Campbell proceeded to blast the woman’s letter and say that people who stutter have the same rights as everyone else and should not be treated any differently just because they have a handicap. The next week, Campbell received thousands of positive letters about his tirade. Kudos to Glen Campbell!

Mel Tillis was an absolute champion in terms of putting a human face on stuttering to say the least. He certainly led an accomplished — and interesting! — life.

From the Winter 2025 Magazine

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Frank Wolf

This Virginian congressman has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1981. The longtime supporter of the Stuttering Foundation drew national attention to childhood stuttering in 2006 when he submitted an article about Tiger Woods from the SFA newsletter to the Congressional Record. The congressman is featured in the Stuttering Foundation's Famous People Who Stutter brochure.

Ken Venturi

As much of the nation watches the U.S. Open Golf Championship, it is impossible not to think about our late friend Ken Venturi. Ken overcame many challenges to win the Open at Congressional in 1964 and go on to become the voice of golf for more than three decades.

However, Ken faced no bigger obstacle than stuttering. Ken Venturi was a champion to those who stutter, going out of his way to share his personal experience when consulted by a colleague, friend, or child who stutters.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Bill Withers

While Bill Withers has long been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter, many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away on March 30, 2020.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.

Darren Sproles

Darren Sproles, a former player for The Philadelphia Eagles, the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers, made history in 2007 when he became the first player in NFL history to return a kickoff and a punt for his first two NFL touchdowns in the same game. In 2021, he was selected to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.