When I hear the names Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, I think of the late Fess Parker, who portrayed the legendary frontiersmen in movies and TV series in the 1950s and 1960s.

While on vacation in eastern Tennessee last week, I tried to put Fess Parker out of my mind and think about the real Crockett, who was born in eastern Tennessee, and Boone, who traveled through Tennessee to explore and settle in what is now Kentucky.

Then I had questions: Did Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett ever meet each other? Did one write to the other? Surely they must have known about each other.

Boone, born in 1734, was 52 years older than Crockett, who was born in 1786.

Boone died at age 85 in September 1820 in Missouri, where he spent most of the last two decades of his life.

Crockett died at age 49 in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.

I directed my questions to four different park rangers last Wednesday at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. No one knew the answer. But “that’s a good question,” one of them said.

The next day I called the history department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The person who answered the phone said the professors there don’t deal with that era in American history. When I asked if she knew the answer to my question, she told me she wasn’t interested in history.

Someone I talked with said Joe Swann would probably have the answer. Swann is a Davy Crockett expert who lives in the city of Maryville (pronounced Mare-ville) not far from Knoxville. I called him Thursday.

Daniel Boone never met Davy Crockett, Swann said. “There were no letters, no correspondence.”

There was, however, a slim connection between two, and his name was Jacob Siler

Siler was a friend and associate of Boone, Swann said. “Siler made a rifle for Boone.”

In 1798, Siler came in contact with Davy Crockett. John Crockett hired out his 12-year-old son to Siler that year.

Davy helped Siler drive a herd of cattle to Rockbridge County, Va., according to the Handbook of Texas Online. Siler tried to detain Davy after the job was finished, but the boy escaped one night by walking seven miles in two hours in knee-deep snow.

Now back to Fess Parker. Here’s an NBC tribute video to the actor who died March 13 at age 85: