Merle Abner (April 25, 1913 - August 30, 2001)

Biography

Merle Abner sang bass with the Swanee River Boys from the time the group was launched in 1939 until the group's retirement in 1971. Aside from his years of military service in World War II, he was the group's only bass singer. Prior to the Swanee River Boys, Abner sang in a group sponsored by the Pepperell Manufacturing Company in Columbus, Georgia and for a short time with the Vaughan Five in Knoxville, Tennessee. Merle's younger brother Buford Abner joined him in the Pepperell Quartet, and they remained together for the majority of their singing careers, changing groups together twice.