Chester Lauck

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Chester Chet Lauck February 9 1902 February 21 1980 was a comic actor who played the character of Lum Edwards on the classic American radio comedy Lum and Abner Chester Lauck was born in Alleene Arkansas and raised in Mena Arkansas He graduated from Mena High School in 1920 In Mena Chet met his future comedy partner Norris Goff Though both began as blackface comics they soon found success on local station KTHS with a recurring hillbilly skit leading to a network series recorded in Chicago Illinois in 1931 In addition to starring as storekeeper Lum full name Columbus Edwards with surname usually pronounced Eddards Lauck also played several other recurring characters including Cedric Weehunt Grandpappy Spears and Snake Hogan He reprised his radio role opposite Goff in seven motion pictures between 1940 and 1956 Lauck adopted grey hair and a moustache oncamera to better match the picture most audiences would have of his radio character In his later years Lauck recorded new introductions for commercial cassette releases of the series and for syndication For a brief time during the 1950s he bought and upgraded a ranch fifteen miles west of Las Vegas later bought by Howard Hughes It was turned into Spring Mountain Ranch State Park On August 27 1957 he appeared as a guest challenger on To Tell the Truth He died on February 21 1980 aged 78 and was buried in Hot Springs Arkansas Chester Lauck is a member of the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame