Class of 2016

Bobby Joe "Bo Jack" Killingsworth

Country & Rockabilly Entertainer

As read by Ronnie Brooks, McNairy County Mayor
June 10, 2016

It is perhaps most fitting on the eve of our annual celebration of local music heritage, that we honor our very own McNairy County rockabilly legend. And it’s not stretching the point, even a little bit, to call Bobby Joe Killingsworth a rockabilly music legend. He has all the credentials to back it up.

Bobby, or as most people know him, Bo Jack, is a true McNairy County original. The first time Bo Jack remembers performing on stage was a 1948 talent competition at Gilchrist, Tennessee, but his music education began long before that. He grew up listening to, and learning from, the old-time pickers in the area, as well as the new sounds emerging during the heyday of postwar mid-south radio. From those foundations, Bo Jack’s music would evolve in new and interesting directions that reflected changing tastes in American popular music. He would embark on a music career that took him from coast to coast, and all points in between, playing with, and earning the respect of some of the most iconic figures in American music history. Perhaps more importantly, Bo Jack has no regrets. In a recent interview, he said “I never wanted music to be like a job, so I just did it like I wanted to…Some people dream of that, but I got to live it.” Not many people in the music industry can say they’ve set their own uncompromising course and kept to it for more than sixty years, but Bo Jack Killingsworth can. We’d say that worked out pretty well for him.

But before the accolades and rubbing elbows with celebrities, there were dues to be paid. As a young teenager Bo Jack assembled his first band, The Monclairs, in the early 1950s and started playing anywhere they could find a job. The group found work in area clubs including Fred’s Place Tavern near Adamsville and the more infamous joints like the Shamrock and Plantation Club along the state line. If it was a little dangerous, it was still a good training ground for a young musicians just cutting their performing teeth. Even then, people knew there was something different about Bo Jack’s music. It wasn’t old-time, it wasn’t the smooth Nashville sound, and it wasn’t altogether pop music either. Like many of his contemporaries, Bo Jack’s music had picked up influence from a variety of sources including local bluegrass and hillbilly pickers, and the new sounds emanating from Memphis radio and the Grand Old Opry—especially the swagger, and raw attitude of country music’s original bad boy, Hank Williams (Sr.). Keep in mind that Hank was still considered a outsider to the country music establishment, and no one had yet heard of rockabilly or rock ’n’ roll music. Little wonder that people had a hard time putting a finger on Bo Jack’s distinctive sound.

By the late 50s an early 60s Bo Jack was getting better paying gigs and more recognition on the regional music circuit. He was still living in Gilchrist but playing more and more dates in popular regional venues. In 1962, he moved to Memphis to be a little closer to the action. It was around that time that the legendary nightclub owner, promoter, rockabilly musician and recording artist, Eddie Bond, heard about Bo Jack. The McNairy County boy was making quite a name for himself as an entertainer, and reliable sideman, on the Memphis music scene. Eddie asked Bo Jack to join his band in 1966 and the two formed a collaborative musical partnership that would last forty years.

Bond saw in Bo Jack, a showman with a rare gift for comedy as well as music. Bo Jack was capable of establishing a hilarious comedic persona, and in the next moment provide high quality vocal and musical accompaniment for any style of music Bond might require. He was the whole package. When Bond started fishing around for a character name for his new side kick, Killingsworth recalled that a high school teacher back at Stantonville had given him the nickname Bo Jack, and thus was Cousin Bo Jack born.

In 1966 Eddie Bond and the Stompers took to the airwaves on WHBQ Memphis, Channel 13, with Cousin Bo Jack in a floppy hat and a patched pair of overalls. He would become a comedic and musical mainstay of Bond’s first weekend TV program. In 1968 the highly rated variety show would move to a coveted weekday morning time slot, five days a week, where it enjoyed widespread popularity, remaining on the air for ten years. The show proved to be a great vehicle for reviving Bond’s waning music career thanks, in no small part, to Bo Jack’s considerable talents. At the height of the show’s popularity Bo Jack found it difficult to move around the streets of Memphis without being recognized, especially if he had on a pair of those trademark overalls. One of the show’s biggest fans was none other than Elvis Presley, who reportedly tuned in every morning, when he was in town, for a daily dose of music and comedy. The lasting popularity of the show is further evidenced by the fact that it was revived for an encore run of more that five years in the 1990s.

TV kept Bo Jack in the spotlight while providing opportunities to increase his growing popularity by teaming up with entertainment industry elites, who often appeared on the morning show to promote their latest project. Bo Jack toured widely with Bond and the Stompers, or as he likes to say, he went “from the Los Vegas Strip to the Louisiana Hayride,” sharing the stage with some of rockabilly and country music’s biggest stars. During the same period, Bo Jack was in demand as a musician and performed in a number of Memphis and Nashville’s most storied recording studios, backing Bond and others. Some might be surprised to learn that Bo Jack can even be heard on a movie sound track that helped make another McNairy County boy famous. Eddie Bond is widely credited with calling national attention to Buford Pusser with his country hit the Legend of Buford Pusser. When it came time to make the soundtrack for the Walking Tall movies, Bo Jack was invited to work on the project with Bond. He can be heard on that soundtrack along with dozens of other recordings from the era.

We don’t often name drop at the Hall of Fame inductions, but the list of famed entertainers Bo Jack Killingsworth has shared stage and studio with, is singularly impressive. For those who might not be familiar with his achievements, this will give an immediate sense of just how significant and far reaching his musical career has really been. Bo Jack, himself, would never tell you all of this, but we are not so shy about sharing his accomplishments. This is a partial, I repeat partial, list of those Bo Jack has had the pleasure of working with at one time or another over a incredible sixty years in music: Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Charlie Louvin, Faren Young, Jimmy Dickenson, Charlie Feathers, Bud Deckleman, Mel Tillis, Webb Pierce, Ace Cannon, Loretta Lynn, Bill Anderson, Narvel Felts, Hank Thompson, Sunny Burgess and the Pacers, Carl Perkins, Carl Mann, Charlie Rich, Johnny Cash, Gene Simmons, Jerry Lee Lewis, Billy Lee Riley, Bobby Lord, Dale Reeves, Johnny Paycheck, Billy Walker, Jeannie Seely, Jimmy C. Newman, John Anderson, Steve Wariner, Hank Williams Jr., Tim McGraw, Tracy Lawrence, and Kenny Chesney. Maybe you recognized a name or two?

That list goes on and on, but you get the point. Bo Jack has been honored with awards too numerous to mention, over the years, but it is perhaps most significant that he has been recognized as a pioneer in the music genre we like to lay claim to as our very own here in Southwest Tennessee. In 1999 Bo Jack was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame as that organization’s 111 member. More recently in 2014 he was inducted into the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson, Tennessee where he continues to play, on occasion, helping to preserve and promote an art form he was influenced by, and helped shape.

Maybe the name of Bo Jack’s latest band, Rockin’ Country, says it all. The name bears witness to one man’s pride in our region’s distinctive musical sound and the depths of our music heritage. He is justifiably proud of his music, and his honored place in that heritage has been rightfully secured.

Bo Jack will tell you he has retired from music, but don’t believe it. You are just as likely as not, on any given weekend, to find Bo Jack playing his unique brand of rockin’ country somewhere in the region. He still plays benefits, community functions, and other shows on occasion. Perhaps most appropriately, you can sometimes see him at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and Museum, or at the Rockabilly Highway Revival here in Selmer, if his “leisurely retirement schedule" permits him to attend. Ask anybody and they will tell you that, Bo Jack’s version of retirement is more rockin’ than rocking chair. You’ll see in just a few minutes. Bo Jack Killingsworth can still get it done.

He is our very own rockin’ country legend, and it is my distinct honor to induct Bobby Joe “Bo Jack” Killingsworth into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the class of 2016.

Arlas "Bo" and Neil English

The Dixie Hayriders & Bluegrass Legends

As read by Harold English, son of Arnold V. English
June 10, 2016

The name English is synonymous with Bluegrass music in McNairy County, Tennessee and it has been since the mid twentieth century. But the story of music in the English family begins long before that. During the depression era friends, neighbors and family members gathered at the home of Ed and Clatia English on Sunday mornings, in the Mud Creek community of eastern McNairy County. There were many reasons for these gatherings, not the least of which was Ed’s skill as an amateur barber. That’s right, he cut people’s hair. While the men lined up for a trim, the musical ones, and anyone else who wanted to join in, would pass the time by playing a little music. Then it was off to church, of course. The whole assemble would make their way, on foot, up to the Mud Creek church building where Ed taught the men's Sunday school class. After services everyone would gather back at the English home where Sunday afternoons were spent in more music making on the front porch. The beginners, who showed promise and a desire to play music, would learn at the feet of the more seasoned pickers. It was not uncommon for local legends such as Hall of Famer Elvis Black, and a 2016 Hall of Fame inductee Waldo Davis, among many others, to be in attendance. It was into this environment that Ed and Clatia English brought forth three sons, Arnold, Arlas (known to most as Bo), and the baby boy, Neil. The English brothers were immersed in old-time music practically from birth.

World War II disrupted these gatherings as some of the young men—Arnold in particular—headed off to Europe and the Pacific to serve their country. Shortly after the war, Arnold English started making music as a part-time vocation to supplement his earnings at the Brown Shoe Factory in Selmer, Tennessee. Arnold was good at getting gigs, but had a little trouble finding musicians to fill out his dance bands. It seems that he was not the only one who found that people were willing to pay to get into a square dance with a good band, so unattached musicians were getting scarce.

But Arnold knew he could rely on his younger brothers, Arlas & Neil, so he recruited his siblings to fill out his band. Both were talented pickers from an early age, having grown up at the feet of some other area’s best musicians in the English household. Needless to say, that worked out pretty well for everybody.

Neither Arlas or Neil can remember exactly when they started playing music. That’s probably because the process started well before they learned to walk. However, both do remember sitting on their father's lap playing guitar when they were nor more than five or six years old. By the time they were ten years old, both were proficient guitarists, playing rhythm at the front porch picking sessions and other family gatherings. As young teenagers, they were ready to take on the role of lead guitarist.

Arlas English was born on June 30, 1931. His father and older brother, Arnold, taught him the basics of music, but it was his own drive and tendency toward perfectionism that made him an outstanding musician. Arlas recalls attending one community dance when he was only twelve years old where the band’s guitarist had gone AWOL. Someone mentioned to the band leader that Arlas was a pretty fair hand with a guitar, so he was asked to stand in, at least until the other guitar player showed up. And excited young Arlas, jumped at the opportunity and joined right in. He did his best and had a big time picking with the older, more experienced players. When the band’s errant guitar player finally arrived, Arlas was prepared to count it a fun evening of music and a good experience. Little did he know that the band leader would dismiss the original guitarist and keep Arlas. It was a pivotal moment for the young picker. From that moment on, he was hooked. With that affirmation of his talent, Arlas wasn't shy about teaching himself to play mandolin. It was a fortuitous decision since Arnold, was in need of a good mandolin player about that time.

Arlas would quickly become a triple threat playing guitar, bass, but especially mandolin with his brothers’s band for many years. After Arnold met an untimely death, Arlas naturally thought about hanging it up. But after a short break from music, he came back with characteristic determination and perfectionism, this time teaching himself to play the fiddle when he was asked to fill in at a dance in Corinth.

By the early 1950's, Arnold had formed the Dixie Hayriders with Arlas on mandolin and the group was getting lots of regional attention. They anchored a long running dance at the Corinth American Legion Hall, where they had an opportunity to play with Bill Monroe’s legendary Mississippi fiddler, Merle “Red” Taylor. They also had a live radio show in Jackson, Tennessee on Saturday mornings, where a young guitarist named Carl Perkins used to hang around hoping for a chance to play with the Hayriders, which he sometimes did. Arlas has also been blessed to share the stage with bluegrass royalty such as Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, among others. Through it all Arlas has remained an old-time music fan as well as a respected and much admired bluegrass musician in his own right.

One of Arlas’s favorite stories from his early days with the Hayriders involves a road trip the band made to Clarendon, Arkansas. Clarendon is about a four hour drive from Selmer today, but on those bumpy, narrow 1950’s roads, it was a much longer and more arduous journey. The whole band, which included Arnold, Arlas, Ovie Vanderford, Newt Carroll, and Garry Sanders had to crowd into the cramped confines of a 1954 Ford with all their instruments. The bass fiddle had to be placed with the body sticking into the rear window and the neck resting across the front seats. Since Arlas was the youngest—he was only seventeen—the newcomer, and he little brother, they made him ride the whole way underneath the bass. He wouldn’t have missed that trip if he had to sit on the hood.

Neil English was born on Nov. 19, 1939. Of course, he grew up learning music from his older brothers and all the other musicians he came in contact with. Like Arlas, his foundation was guitar which he learned to play at five or six years old, continuing the family legacy of early musical proficiency. Neil’s entree into the professional ranks came while just a young teenager when Arnold, once again, found himself in need of a reliable bass player. Neil had never played bass, but Arnold had confidence in him. The big brother and band leader bought a used bass at a pawnshop near the Mississippi State Line and showed Neil a few notes. Neil was off to the races. From that time on, he became the bass player for the Dixie Hayriders, and the English boys never looked back.

In the aftermath of Arnold’s tragic death, Neil thought it was time for a change of pace. He traded in the standup acoustic bass for an electric bass and amp, performing in rock ’n’ roll bands for many years at local night spots, clubs and dances. By the early 1960 tastes in music were changing rapidly. Rock ’n’ roll, R&B, and country bands were much more in demand. Consequently, there was more financial incentive to play those genres and Neil enjoyed the contemporary sounds, becoming a sought after bassists for area bands. He even played in the band of legendary Sun recording artists Carl Mann for a while.

Neil played with many other notable musicians in his career including McNairy County Music Hall of Fame Inductee Frank Congiardo Jr., and the Silver Fox himself, Charlie Rich, among others. But after many year of working a full-time day job and gigging 6 nights a week, Neil was due a break. Of course, music wouldn’t leave him alone for long.

Neil used the downtime to train himself on the dobro and became more than a little proficient on that style of resonator guitar, which is among the more difficult acoustic instruments to master. It wasn’t long before Arlas was after him to join another bluegrass band and Neil was happy to oblige, picking the bass fiddle up again, and later switching to the dobro, which he still plays today.

The Hatchie Bottom Boys have been regarded as one of McNairy County’s best bluegrass outfits for more that thirty years now. Throughout most of that time, Arlas and Neil English have been the beating heart of that band, and that’s not an arguable point. Arlas’s health has recently forced him to give it up, and he is sorely missed, but Neil still keeps the fire burning for the English family. Most people would be lucky to have one good shot at performing with a topflight band that involved some of the area’s best musicians, but the English boys have done that, over and over again, for more than seventy years. You can be sure that for many years yet to come, wherever people talk about McNairy County’s best musicians, these two will be remembered. And rightfully so.

Just as admirable as the English brothers’ talent is their commitment to their community. Arlas & Neil have played in just about every conceivable venue from weddings and funerals, to barn dances and Nashville studios. They have played countless nursing homes, hospitals, and benefits concerts. Once they even played a cock fight from behind the chicken wire enclosure, but that’s another story altogether. All levity aside, this is the trait I most admire about Neil & Arlas English: The unselfish approach they have always taken to sharing their exceptional musical gifts with others. They have donated innumerable hours of their time and committed all of their talent and abilities to improve the lives of those around them, often for little or no compensation. They are, indeed, great examples of true musicians who have worked hard to be faithful stewards of their God given talents. They have spent untold hours practicing, not for their own glory, but to enable them to teach others, and to give of their talents as freely as they received, with every performance. While it’s true that they love entertaining, their fulfillment has always come from the joy their music brings into the lives of others. That is something we should all aspire to. Arlas and Neil English have blessed the lives of their family members, friends, bandmates and countless audience member throughout the region for the better part of a century, and we are all the richer for it.

It is fitting that they join their older brother, Arnold, in this honor tonight. Arnold was inducted in 2014 and I am proud to induct Arlas and Neil English into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the class of 2016.

Waldo Davis

Old-Time Fiddler & Radio and TV Personality

As read by Shawn Pitts, Arts in McNairy Founder
June 10, 2016

I never knew Waldo Davis. I have only heard him play music on recordings. But the first time that happened it was a revelation. I will never forget it. In 2009 we were scraping together as many of the Stanton Littlejohn recordings as we could find in hopes of preserving their contents, when I got a strange email from a former local boy who had moved out west many years ago.

Ronnie Gooch contacted me to let me know he had a few old records that might have a local connection if we were interested. He had inherited a stack of deteriorating vinyl and acetate records from his father, Johnson Gooch, who played banjo and a little guitar for one of Waldo’s early bands, the Midnight Ramblers. Ronnie said he would send me a cassette transfer he had made several years earlier for a little sneak preview. If we thought it was worthwhile, he would then send the original records in for preservation. That sounded reasonable to me so, I thanked him for getting in touch and didn’t think much more about it, until a package arrived in the mail several weeks later. Even then, I put it on the “to do pile” and let it ride for several more weeks. By that point in our search for the old recordings, we’d already run up a number of blind alleys and turned down a few dead end streets, so I wasn’t in a hurry for a fresh disappointment. Some weeks after I received Ronnie’s package, we had to take a quick trip, so on a lark, I asked my wife, Joanna, to drive and fished out my old Sony Walkman so I could listen to the cassettes. About two minutes in, Waldo Davis had a new fan. Me. This was no dead end street, it was absolute dynamite. This is part of what I heard that day.

How about that? As it turned out, Johnson Gooch had saved several recordings of broadcasts on Corinth Mississippi’s WCMA radio from the early 1940s. The audio was surprisingly well preserved and it revealed a first rate entertainer in his prime. The Midnight Ramblers played and sang old-time and western swing standards while Waldo sawed a fiddle in half and blew the reeds out of a harmonica, as you just heard. They told jokes, bantered between numbers, did novelty songs and smoking fiddle tunes, and put on a program that was still wildly entertaining seventy years later. Predictably, Waldo stole the show. I was simply blown away. I have listened to that audio a hundred times or more by now and I highly recommend it. There is a palpable energy in it that is just irresistible.

But that wasn’t the first, and I predict it will not be the last, time Waldo Davis electrified an audience and made a new fan or two. After all, that’s why were here tonight. Waldo’s musical journey began as a very young man back in Leapwood Tennessee. Like so many of the greats, Waldo was born into a musical family. All of the Davis’s, in his generation, were talented musicians and singers, as were many of their offspring. Raymond, Kermit, James, Newana, Charlene and several other lesser known family members were respected and sought after gospel singers, musicians, and entertainers in that neck of the woods for many years. Another induction tonight will bear testimony to the incredible musical legacy of the Davis clan.

It probably didn’t hurt his prospects that Waldo had a good natured musical rivalry with Hall of Fame fiddler Elvis Black, who was also a Leapwood native. If you had pick a community in Tennessee with the best per capita average for producing champion fiddlers, Leapwood would be a serious contender.

Waldo grew up playing about anything with a string on it, but his primary instrument was fiddle. He also loved to clown around with the harmonica and in his hands it became a serious musical instrument, as you just heard. Waldo first began entertaining at family functions with Raymond and Kermit Davis and they would soon branch out into community events, barn dances, home musicals, and jams in one room schoolhouses all around the region. Waldo was a born entertainer and everyone seemed to recognize that from an early age.

In addition to being a outstanding musician, Waldo had a gift for gab which made him a natural on stage. He developed a number of comedic characters in the vaudeville tradition that made him as popular with his fans as his exceptional musical prowess. A particular favorite, Obadiah Stump, kept everyone in stitches and caught the attention of early regional radio programmers. Waldo would parlay his gift for music and comedy into a highly successful broadcasting career in the early days of regional radio.

In the early, and mid 1940s Waldo became one of the most popular radio entertainers in West Tennessee and North Mississippi. He did guest spots on several shows, recorded commercials for advertisers, and toured the region with other radio personalities promoting the various radio stations where he worked.

He was perhaps best known for his long running association with the live program, the Farm and Home Hour, broadcasted weekly on Saturdays from the popular Jackson, Tennessee radio station WTJS. It was there that Waldo met and played with the country music icon Eddy Arnold long before “The Tennessee Plowboy” scored his first hit record. It would not be Waldo’s last brush with superstardom.

There are hundreds of great local stories that surround Waldo’s eccentricities and musical antics. This is due, in no small part, to Waldo himself who attracted folk tales like honey attracts flies. Since he seems to have spent the later years of this life cultivating his own outlandish reputation we are left with some great oral tradition on his incredible life and legacy—it was just the comedian and storyteller in him. It should be noted here that none of this detracts from the man’s spectacular musical genius; it only endears him to those who fondly remember his unforgettable performances and the larger than life stories they inspired. Everyone’s favorite seems to be Waldo’s Grand Ole Opry adventure. I have heard that one repeated by multiple sources, so I would like to tell you a condensed, cleaned up, and lightly edited version, of that tale. Who knows, some of it might even be true.

Once upon a time Waldo Davis got it into his head that an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry would be just the thing for an emerging young entertainer. So, he hitchhiked to Nashville where he sweet talked his way through the door, and got an audition with Opry founder, George D. Hay. Judge Hay reportedly gave Waldo the once over and asked why in the world he would want to hire the likes of him. Waldo replied that he might just be the best fiddle player the honorable judge had ever laid eyes on. When Hay remarked that good fiddlers were a dime a dozen in Nashville, Tennessee, Waldo produced the harmonica from his vest pocket and said he meant to say he was the best harp player Judge Hay had ever heard. The Judge laughed out loud at that one and noted that he already had the best harp player in the country in the legendary DeFord Bailey. “You just think you do,” Waldo reportedly replied. Moved by his confidence, charisma, and plain old audacity, Hay agreed to let Waldo play a few bars on his harmonica just to get rid of him. Before Waldo could finish, Hay looked at is booking staff and said, “Sign him up boys, he’s hotter than a firecracker.” Waldo liked to brag about his time on the Grand Ole Opry which seems to have lasted just about one month. Back home in Leapwood, when friends asked why he didn't stay on the Opry any longer he would always say he never had any intentions of staying in Nashville, Tennessee he just wanted to prove he was good enough to be there. And indeed he was.

It doesn’t matter if this tale, or any of the others, are true in every detail. What matters is that McNairy County had Waldo Davis. It is certainly a fact that Waldo relished his time in McNairy County and always preferred to be here, sharing his twin gifts of music and laughter among his friends. Some of the region’s best musicians considered Waldo a friend and mentor, and I dare say that his influence is still felt today. If you want verification of that, Wayne Jerrolds will play the musical tribute in a few minutes, and I don’t think he would mind me saying that echoes of Waldo Davis can be clearly heard in Wayne’s style even now. The shades of western swing and blues you hear in Wayne Jerrolds’s music are very much a product of Waldo’s influence. Wayne and Waldo played hours and hours of music together and became dear friends along the way. He can tell you much more than I about the depths of Waldo’s talent and the profound stamp he left on local music. Just ask him sometime.

As I mentioned at the outset, I never met Waldo Davis, but I can’t help feeling that I know him somehow. The few scraps of audio that survive and the stories—all those wonderful stories that people can’t help smiling when they retell—these keep Waldo’s memory and his music alive and close to us. Both are powerful reminders of McNairy County’s rich musical heritage and the masters, like Waldo Davis, who bequeathed us so great a legacy.

It is a profound honor for me to induct Mr. Waldo Davis into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the class of 2016.

Dwight & Freda Locke

Southern Rock & Country Artists

As read by Christy Whitten, Arts in McNairy Board of Directors
June 10, 2016

When you think of the perfect joining of musical talent and marriage, Dwight and Freda Locke are the couple that comes to most of our minds. They have faithfully made music together since 1971 when after a short 9 month courtship Dwight made Freda his wife. Personally, I think Dwight is a smart man and Freda a lucky woman. But it all started somewhere before The Gunner Lee Band, Hee Haw, before their dedication to Selmer First Baptist Church and the morning praise band and the countless other engagements they appear at year round.
While Dwight the son of Vadel and Estell Locke had little musical history in his immediate family his marriage to Freda Vires the daughter of JT and Newana Vires placed him in the middle of a family whose musical history went back several generations and continues today in McNairy County.

For Dwight it began at 16 when he picked up the guitar and learned his first chords from Teddy Dunaway. After learning the 1st guitar chords he would sit behind Grady Taylor at the Chewalla Square Dance and imitate his movements on the guitar. This was the beginning of learning the craft he is known for today. On the other side of McNairy County at about the same age of 16 Freda picked up an unused guitar her brother Nicky had purchased for a local neighborhood band. With no formal music lessons a musical heritage began that continues to shape the lives of multiple generations of musicians within their own family and this community.

During the early years of their marriage they started playing in their living room along with several musician friends. Freda describes the scene as the furniture was pushed back against the walls and the stage was set for the beginning of the group better known as the Gunner Lee Band. During that time Freda played bass guitar and did some old time fiddling while Dwight played lead guitar. Also included in this original group were Jimmy Johnson, Mike Boyd and Louis Davis. The style of music most popular with the Gunner Lee Band was Country-Western and Southern Rock.

As they began to become popular in local circles and at local events in McNairy County, they played alongside other musicians such as The Whitten Brothers, The Murray Boys, Wayne Jerrolds Band, Jimmy Melton Band, and The Country Cowboys. They held multiple concerts for the Junior Civic League, Murray Hill, The Family Music Hall, Eastview Civic Center, the McNairy County Fair, Wal-mart’s Grand Opening, GE company functions, local campaign rallies, Henco Christmas Parties, The Eastview Ruritans, the Boy Scouts, and in 1982 the McNairy County Festival which also included such recording artists as Kippi Brannon, Steve Wariner and Tom Carlile.

They could easily be found at local lodges like the Moose Lodge and Elk’s Lodges, VFW’s, American Legions, Country Clubs, Benefits, TVA Riverboats, Gas Stations, Grocery stores, Restaurants, Homecomings, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Weddings and Marina’s. In July of 1981, at the Savannah High School Stadium the Gunner Lee Band was the local favorite that opened for the legendary Country Music group Alabama. Later in 1983, they were featured on the Memphis TV Show (Good Morning from Memphis) when the McNairy County Band Boosters sponsored the first Freedom Festival which was a 3 day event located in the Selmer City Park and also featured last year’s inductee Ernest “Pappy” Whitten.

In 1989, at the height of her career on Designing Women Dixie Carter and her husband Hal Holbrook held a birthday bash for her father, Halbert Carter for 175 people at her home in McLemoresville, Tennessee. While Dixie Carter could have acquired any up and coming musical group for her father’s entertainment, it was McNairy County natives Dwight and Freda Locke with the other members of the Gunner Lee Band that provided their own style of country and southern rock for the party.

The Gunner Lee Band certainly became a favorite all over West Tennessee and North Mississippi and continued playing together for 17 years. They continued as paid performers up until 1997, when member Louie Davis moved to Switzerland. It was only then that they settled back and moved their music into a new direction.

That new direction took them into the Hee Haw Show for 8 years and as members of the Hee Haw Quartet. In 2008, they even stepped onstage with Arts in McNairy when AiM did a small locally written musical from a Tennessee couple called Circuit Rider’s Wife and was set in the Appalachian Mountains of the 19th Century.

Today they are a part of the praise band for Selmer First Baptist Church. They faithfully play 2 worship services every Sunday morning where Dwight plays lead guitar and Freda plays bass guitar and sings harmony. At Selmer FBC they also are a part of a gospel quartet that travels around singing in various churches and every 3rd Thursday sing and play for the residents of the McNairy County Health Care Facility.

But this story which is UNFINISHED is more than about just what music they play, where they play, or really for how long they have played. It is about the legacy these two people with humble beginnings started 45 years ago when they married. It continues through the life of their only daughter Gina Foret, her husband Ryan and their 3 daughters, Emma, Claire, and Eve Foret.

When your parents on Friday night are performing Lynyrd Skynyrd in the living room when you are a small child you grow up to be a music major with a music education degree and a degree in Saxophone Performance from Louisiana State University. Then you marry a trumpet player and another music education major and moved him home to McNairy County. Then we truly see the amazing musical heritage they have established. The ability to play musical instruments continues with Freda and Dwight’s 3 granddaughters. Emma plays, trumpet, guitar, bass and violin and will be a music major in the fall at UT Martin. Claire plays clarinet, saxophone, piano, and fiddle. Eve plays trombone, bass guitar, and loves playing the ukulele.

In September 2009, Dwight was injured in a motorcycle accident that left him badly broken and fighting for his life. God was not through with Dwight and with Freda at his side, many prayers, great doctors, and the love of family and friends he got up and walked again. Two weeks ago on May 27th with no warning Dwight suffered a stroke. The incredible outpouring of prayer and love that swept this county was truly an amazing experience to behold. Dwight has fought each day to overcome the physical challenges he once again faces to get up and walk and make music. Just as God was not through with him in 2009, God is not through with him today and with Freda at this side all things are possible.

I could not imagine what I needed to say to sum up how much these two truly gifted, humble, inspirational people mean to this community and to the musical heritage they continue to help nurture and develop. So I decided to let the words of people who know them and love them sum it up. Shelia Milford a dear friend and a gifted singer and piano player who has sang alongside them for years in Hee Haw said, “I have great gratitude and love for the music that they have shared in our county.” Dear friend Jerry Wright said, “Dwight and Freda have a blessed gift from God to make music that reaches everyone’s heart. Those of us who are privileged to be entertained by them are also blessed. They will always be a treasured part of McNairy County’s great musical talent. McNairy County should be proud to claim them as its own.”

Longtime friend and former band member Jimmy Johnson said, “They have influenced my life so much. They have never let me down. If it was not for them I would not have the musical memories I have today. They are so unselfish and give freely over and over again.” Their pastor Joey Johnson of Selmer First Baptist Church had these very eloquent words, “Dwight and Freda Locke’s musical abilities are obvious to all who are fortunate enough to hear them play and Freda sing. But, musical ability alone does not make them extraordinary. The unique quality that separates Dwight and Freda from other musicians is that they do not merely play their instruments with their hands but, they play with their hearts. They effectively communicate a love for music, while expressing a sincere affection for people. Their instruments serve as avenues of hope and faith, bringing joy to audiences of all ages.”

It brings me great pleasure to induct Dwight and Freda Locke into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame Class of 2016.