Born in Smackover, Arkansas, he began playing guitar at age 12, and was heavily influenced by Merle Travis.
By 1951 he was playing on the Louisiana Hayride; that year he signed to Capitol Records and released his first single, "I Keep the Blues All the Time", as Jimmy Lee.
Fautheree left Mathis to work with Wayne Walker, a partnership that lasted only four months but yielded a few recordings.
Some self-released material and a single on Paula Records brought him into 1960, and throughout the next decade Fautheree worked increasingly in the genre of gospel music.
He played both in the U.S. and abroad in the 2000s, and released a full-length album with Deke Dickerson entitled I Found the Doorknob.