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Allen Richard (Dick) Penner was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1936, shortly before his family moved to Texas. He began performing locally in 1953 with a musical partner named Dave Young, and together they played at the Big D Jamboree, performing songs by Johnny and Jack. In 1955, Dick enrolled at North Texas State University in Denton, where he met Wade Lee Moore, who was born in Amarillo in 1933. The duo performed at the Big D Jamboree on June 25, 1955, singing classic R&B songs "Hey, Miss Fanny" and "Dance with Me Henry," sharing the stage with artists like Charline Arthur, Sonny James, and Jimmy Patton. They likely performed the previous week as well, as Dick recalled Elvis arriving late on stage after a date in West Texas. The pair also played various gigs in Hope, Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Dallas, Texas. Dick Penner served as a Professor of English at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville for 32 years until his retirement in 1990.

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