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Frank Hovington

American blues musician (1919–1982)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 8, 2025
Entity authorityQ1443464
Source-derived summary

Franklin Hovington (January 9, 1919 – June 21, 1982), also known as Guitar Frank, was an American blues musician. He played the guitar and banjo and sang in the Piedmont blues style. He lived in the vicinity of Frederica, Delaware.

Hovington was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. His style was modelled on Blind Boy Fuller, although he played the guitar using a strong thumb beat and experimented with styles of rhythm. On a tip from the folklorist Peter B. Lowry, he was recorded by Dick Spottswood and Bruce Bastin, with an album released on Flyright Records in the UK (available on CD) and on Rounder Records in the US. Selections were recorded by Axel Küstner and Siggi Christmann for German release, most recently issued by Evidence Records in the US.

He disliked travel and did not play away from his Delaware home, afraid that he would lose his welfare support payments, and so did not get the publicity from music festival appearances alone that his talent deserved.

He died in Felton, Delaware, in June 1982, at the age of 63.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Frank Hovington” as american blues musician (1919–1982). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Frank, Hovington and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1919, 1982—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1919-01-09. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Frank, Hovington and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Frank Hovington”, the useful work is to connect “american blues musician (1919–1982)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 8, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1443464. VIAF identifies the subject as 4695563. The Library of Congress control number is no2006123037. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919 and 1982.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Frank Hovington” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.