Violet Hensley

• Birth Name — Violet Brumley • Born — 21 October 1916 • Birthplace — Mount Ida, Arkansas, U.S. • Died — 7 August 2026 • Place of death — Yellville, Arkansas, U.S. • Occupation — * Luthier • musician • Instrument — Fiddle • Works — Old Time Fiddle Tunes • Awards — National Fiddler Hall of Fame

Violet Hensley was born in Mount Ida, Arkansas, on October 21, 1916, to George Washington Brumley and Nora (née Springer). She had two sisters. Her mother died when she was age 11. Her father was farmer and a musician who had made fiddles since age 14 and she learned the craft from him, making her first fiddle, for herself, at age 15. She made three more before she was 18. In 1935, she married Adren Hensley. The couple had nine children and she ceased to make fiddles for twenty-seven years to focus on her family. In 1961, Hensley began building fiddles again, making 69 more instruments, all numbered. She also repaired fiddles. In 1968, the family moved to Yellville, Arkansas, where she had her workshop. She said in an interview that she could have made more fiddles for the time she "spent gardening, canning, sewing and cutting her neighbors' hair". She "made lye soap, tanned leather, broke horses and tended crops", and also worked as a cleaner in a hospital for years. Her husband died in 1997.

Hensley's expertise on fiddles gave her national attention when she was featured in the magazine National Geographic in 1970. She was invited to television shows, to The Beverly Hillbillies in 1969, The Art Linkletter Show in 1970, Captain Kangaroo in 1977, and to Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in 1992. She was featured in Mature Living in 1987, and in Country Woman in 1991. During the 1980s, Hensley appeared weekly on KCTT in Yellville. She was featured on Ozarks Public Television (KOZK/KOZJ) at Missouri State University in Springfield in 2006, in a program Handcrafted Musical Instruments. She was featured on The Bob Braun Show and on CBS Evening News. She was often called "the Stradivarius of the Ozarks".

Due to failing vision, Hensley stopped making complete fiddles later in life, but kept making parts in the process, and also teaching others the craft and playing. In 2014, Hensley published her autobiography Whittlin' and Fiddlin' My Own Way: The Violet Hensley Story. It was co-authored by the American actor and musician Randall Franks. Hensley turned 100 years old on October 21, 2016, making her a centenarian. Hensley died in Yellville, Arkansas, on August 7, 2026, at the age of 109. She was preceded in death by four of her sons, seven grandchidren, and one great-great-grandson. Her descendants include 32 grandchildren, 85 great-grandchildren, 29 great-great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-great-grandchildren.