His friends called him “The Music Man” there in the Southern part of Kansas and Northern Oklahoma. The first music he heard as a child came from his grandfather’s fiddle and also the Western Swing on the radio coming from Tulsa.

From the little country church three hills south of his grandparent’s home in Northern Oklahoma, he fell in love with the old-time Gospel songs sung by the various farm families who worshipped there.

As a youngster, he was all about country music until at about thirteen he heard Chris and Blue Suede Shoes. That did it. He stopped taking piano lessons, borrowed his uncle’s guitar, and it began.

At seventeen, he met Mae Hoose from Blackwell, Oklahoma, a housewife who wrote songs. She and her husband Gene persuaded him to record four of her songs with his band composed of friends from the Arkansas City High School. One song, “A Pink Cadillac and a Red Headed Girl” was picked up by a label in New York City. The label was Taurus Records and the flip side chosen was “This is the Last Time.” The music bug bit Donnie Huffman.

His mother Nellie thought he should let his kid sister sing with him. “You sound so good together,” she said. But who would want their tattle tail little sister tagging along to gigs and band dates?

But when producer L D. Allen from Oklahoma City heard them sing, the die was cast and it became “Donnie and Diane.”

They recorded “From Larry to Sherri” and “Bongo Rhythm” on Allen’s Dee Jay Label at the same studio in Oklahoma City, Sullivans, and the song charted and peaked in the mid-teens on WKY’s chart there locally.

The new brother/sister team had a regional hit with a song penned by Bill and Doree Post. Bill was a native Kansan and he and Doree had written: “Sixteen Reasons” a national top ten hit for Connie Stevens and a song entitled “Weekend” was a hit in England for Eddie Cochran of “Summertime Blues” fame.

Bill changed the name to “Hot Rod Weekend” and Donnie, Diane, and their band recorded it in Wichita, Kansas, with voices stacked in Kansas City. With Hot Rod noise added at Gold Star in California, the song was a regional top ten hit for them.

Not long afterward, Conway Twitty heard them sing as they sat in with the Swingin’ Conner Family at the Oklahoma State Fair.

The Conner Family was to become family. Literally. Donnie married the Conner sister, Becky, and inherited four new brothers in law. In time, they recorded a number of songs together.

Eventually, a phone call by Conway Twitty led to a recording session with him and his band.

Two years later, Donnie and Diane won Wichita’s KFDI’s talent contest. The first prize was a recording session that produced a song Donnie had written entitled, “Little Bitty Mini Skirt.” This song brought Donnie and Diane and their band a significant amount of attention as their music was heard by so many via the county music Powerhouse, KFDI in Wichita, Kansas.

Becky became a permanent and important part of the group, adding harmonies to the recordings thereafter.

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​In the early seventies, Donnie resigned from his teaching and coaching job and joined the reformed Conner Family Group. Starting in the state of Texas, they eventually signed with a manager/ booking agent in the New York/ New Jersey area. They traveled nationally eventually performing in the Hilton Hotel Line. They performed with and met others who came to watch them. Many of their musical heroes of the era were: Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Jimmy Dean, Conway Twitty, Tom Jones, the Osmonds with Donny & Marie, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Merle Haggard, Rick Nelson, and many more. 

As his children grew older and started school, Donnie resigned and returned to teaching and coaching, but playing locally in the Southern Kansas and Northern Oklahoma area. He continued to write and record, and he recorded over 200 recordings in Nashville, Tennessee, with musicians who have recorded with many big stars such as Elvis Presley, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and a host of other nationally known stars. 

Several of the Nashville songs Donnie wrote and recorded received national and international play.

"Dr. Can You Mind a Heartbreak?" received a pick hit mention in Billboard Trade Magazine.

"One Kiss at a Time" went to #1 on Cashbox's Independent Charts.

"Gabrielle" reached #3 on Cashbox’s Independent Charts.

Several of his Gospel songs,

"Cowboy Come Home",

"Chippin’ Away"

"Fly on the Wind"

“The Three Steps” and

“He Was There,” a patriotic song, charted in various markets here and in Europe.