Thomas Delmer "Artimus" Pyle (born July 15, 1948) is an American musician best known for playing drums with Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1974 to 1977 and from 1987 to 1991. He and his Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.Pyle was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of homemaker Mildred "Midge" Pyle (née Williams; 1925-2008) and Clarence "Del" Pyle (1921-1971), a construction superintendent who was awarded a Purple Heart after being shot in the leg while serving with the U.S. Marines in the South Pacific during World War Two. Both his parents had roots in the Jamestown, Tennessee area, and he is a distant cousin of World War One hero Alvin York. Through his maternal grandmother, he can trace his ancestry to Claus Koger (1572-1630), a bailiff who lived in the German town of Weil am Rhein. Pyle had a younger sister, Marilyn (1953-2016). Known as “Tommy” throughout his childhood, Pyle graduated from Eastmoor High School, in Columbus, Ohio, in 1966, and studied for a year at Tennessee Technological University where classmates dubbed him "Artimus" on account of his boyish face. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968. He was named platoon and series honorman and promoted to Private First Class following completion of boot camp in San Diego. Eyeing a career in civil aviation, Pyle worked as an avionics mechanic at various military bases, including Millington, Tennessee, and Beaufort, South Carolina, ultimately rising to the rank of sergeant. He was honorably discharged in 1971, after his father was killed [1] in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force B-57 weather reconnaissance bomber over New Mexico. Wikipedia
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