Frosty the Snowman: A West Virginia songwriter’s holiday gift to the world

By Matthew Young, RealWV

The corncob pipe and button nose make sense, I guess, but have you ever wondered why Frosty the Snowman’s eyes were made out of coal? 

Tell you the truth, neither have I. I always just enjoyed the song for what it was and never thought too much about it. That was until I learned that ol’ Frosty’s roots trace back to Keyser, in Mineral County. 

Yup, that’s right – Frosty’s old man was a Mountaineer. And now the coal makes perfect sense. 

Walter “Jack” Rollins wrote the lyrics to Frosty the Snowman in 1950, with his partner, Steve Nelson, supplying the music. However, this was by far the pair’s first successful collaboration. Just one year prior, Rollins and Nelson released “Peter Cottontail” to the tune of more than one million copies sold. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Dinah Shore were just a few of the legendary performers to record Peter Cottontail, and the song has become as synonymous with Easter as the long-eared bunny himself. 

Rollins was 44-years-old when, while working with Hill and Range Publishers in New York City, he put Frosty to paper. And he was 46 two years later when he once more collaborated with Nelson to record the equally-famous “Smokey the Bear” for the U.S. Forest Service. But Rollins’ journey began long before he reached the bright lights of the Big Apple. 

Born in Scottsdale, Pennsylvania (no, not Scottsdale, Arizona) on September 15, 1906, Rollins moved with his family to Keyser, West Virginia shortly after his birth. (There does seem to be some debate whether Rollins was born in Pennsylvania or West Virginia. But as four of the six sources I looked at state his birth occurred in Pennsylvania, I’m going with that). Rollins and his mother shared a love of writing poetry, with his mother motivating the young writer to set his poems to music. 

At 18, Rollins took a job at a Pittsburgh glass factory, before quitting to join a traveling carnival. Eventually, Rollins found himself in New York City, where he worked as a Penn Station bag handler prior to joining Hill and Range.

As the author of more than 500 published songs throughout his career, Rollins became a go-to songwriter for the likes of George Jones, Gene Autry, and Eddie Arnold. And despite scoring a number one hit with the Hank Snow release, “I Don’t Hurt Anymore,” Rollins remains best remembered for Frosty the Snowman. 

Rollins was 66 when he passed away on January 1, 1973, near his home in Cincinnati. Now enjoying his eternal rest back home in Keyser, Jack Rollins was posthumously inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2011.

To learn more about Jack Rollins, visit e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia Online.