Remembering ‘A Name on a Wall’

It was after midnight when Jimmy Fortune and John Rimel started writing the song “More Than a Name on a Wall.”
The first verse tells of a mother walking up to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and finding her son’s name on the Memorial Wall. In the second verse she talks with God, telling him how much she misses her boy and what he meant to her.
The lyrics and music came so easily to the writers that it almost seemed as if they were copying the song, rather than composing it. A few hours before dawn they were working on the final verse.
Rimel’s thoughts went back to his childhood and his best friend, Charles “Chippy” Butler. He remembered how they played war in their backyards — cap pistols for firearms, magnolia blossoms for grenades.

“Chippy went on to become a helicopter pilot,” said Rimel, who teaches English at Buford Middle School in Charlottesville. “While serving in Vietnam his helicopter was shot down and he was killed.
“He was the one person who I really knew well who lost his life in Vietnam. Our whole childhood was spent running around together, and then he was gone.
“When we came up with the line in the song, ‘Playing war since he was 3,’ I was thinking about Chippy and that was pretty emotional.”
Rimel and Fortune wrote “More Than a Name on a Wall” in 1988. At the time Fortune was singing tenor with the Statler Brothers, and they recorded it in 1989.

The song turned out to be a big hit for the Virginia group, and in 1990 it was named the top country music single of the year. Recently the song became a huge hit for bluegrass duo Dailey & Vincent.
The song homesteaded the No. 1 slot on the SIRIUS bluegrass countdown chart for six consecutive weeks. On Oct. 3, Dailey & Vincent dominated the International Bluegrass Music Association awards, thanks in large part to their phenomenal success with the Fortune-Rimel song.
Throughout the evening Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent were called onto the legendary stage of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to accept awards. They made history by becoming the first to win Entertainer of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year in a 12-month period.

By the time all the hardware was handed out, Dailey & Vincent also had won Vocal Group of the Year as well as Album of the Year for their self-titled Rounder debut. They also won for best Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year, and Dailey won Male Vocalist of the Year.
Dailey has long been a fan of the Statler Brothers, who retired as a group on Oct. 26, 2002. He was going through some of their songs looking for something he and his partner might record and decided to bring “More Than a Name on a Wall” to a rehearsal.
“Jamie had written the words down on a piece of paper and we started rehearsing it,” Vincent said of the song. “I had known the song for years, but it’s different when you’re singing it.
“I started crying and couldn’t get through it. The words were so tender, it just touched my heart. I’m a father of three children, and the whole story of a mother having the name of her child up there on the wall just moved my heart.
“A few nights ago I did three or four songs at church. A lady asked me to sing that song, and I couldn’t get through it. I was squalling, the people in the church were squalling. It’s a powerful song.”

Fortune got the idea for the song after seeing a television news broadcast that showed a woman approaching the black granite wall with a bouquet of flowers. After placing the flowers at the foot of one of the 144 panels, she took out a piece of paper and made a charcoal rubbing of her son’s name.
“I had been on the road when I saw that newscast,” Fortune said recently via telephone from Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., where he was performing. “After I got back home, John and I got together and had a little writing session.
“The thing about that song was for some reason it was like our spirits went to the other side of the wall, and was looking back through it from the soldiers’ standpoint. I can’t explain how or why that happened except that we let ourselves go there.
“That song didn’t just come from John and me here on Earth. It came from somewhere else, and someone else and other people through us. I believe we were delivering a message for those people who aren’t here to talk for themselves any more.”

Fortune said after they finished the song and played it back, they both knew it was something special. When the Statler Brothers released it in 1989, some radio disc jockeys thought it was too powerful.
“There’s a lot of emotions packed into the song, and we didn’t know if it would be too much for some people,” said Rimel, who has been playing music and writing songs with Fortune for many years.
“When the song first came out it was going up the charts really fast. But there were some stations in the country that refused to play it, because they thought it was too emotional and would upset their listeners.
“Other stations saw the value in it. I think the thing that meant the most to me were the stacks of letters we got after the Statler Brothers recorded it. Vietnam veterans would write and say how much the song helped them to open up.”

Last year Fortune, Dailey and Vincent sang the song during the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Fortune said it was such a moving experience that they still haven’t gotten over it.
“They had a public address system that provided a soft sound going around the entire wall,” Fortune said. “People were going up and touching the names and placing items at the foot of the wall.
“There’s a real feeling of reverence there. As we were singing the song you could see how it was affecting people. Afterward they made a line and started coming up to say thank you.
“But I’m the one saying thank you from the bottom of my heart through the words of that song every time I sing it. What was so overwhelming for me were the men who came up and gave me medals they had earned while serving in Vietnam.
“I have a special place in my house where I keep them to pay tribute to them. I think about them every time I do that song.”

Dailey said singing the song at the memorial was extremely emotional for him and his partner. He said they both felt honored, blessed and thankful for having the opportunity to sing the song at the place that has come to symbolize the Vietnam experience.
“The song really strikes a chord for me, because I have a cousin whose name is on that wall,” Vincent said. “A great number of people lived through that era of history and had loved ones die in that war.
“They still remember, so when they hear that song, it touches them and brings back a lot of memories. They might be hurtful memories or happy moments when a loved one came home from the war.
“Knowing all that, I’m honored to sing the song with Jamie, and we’re honored to give a thank you back to the veterans and their families. We pray for them daily.”

Rimel has written hundreds of songs, many of which have been recorded. He said “More Than a Name on a Wall” means the most to him.
“That song has touched more people than any other song I’ve done,” said Rimel, who worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 30 years before becoming a teacher four years ago. “You can write a love song or a typical country music song and it might be a big hit.
“But to me a song that touches someone emotionally is special. We’ve always said there were three writers in the room the night we wrote that song — Jimmy, me and God.”