On this day (October 20) in 1913, Louis Marshall Jones was born in Niagara, Kentucky. Beginning in the 1920s, he made a name for himself as “Grandpa Jones”, a highly spirited banjo player and old-time singer who almost single-handedly kept the instrument relevant to country music during the 1930s and 1940s. He later became a beloved regular on the wildly popular variety series Hee-Haw, remaining with the show for two decades. In 1978, the Country Music Hall of Fame welcomed him into its ranks.
Grandpa Jones died on February 19, 1998, in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 84. Today, we’re revisiting his illustrious career in honor of what would have been his 113th birthday.
Early Years
Before he was the beloved Grandpa Jones, he was Louis Marshall Jones, the youngest of 10 children born into a sharecropper family. Music was a constant in his life from an early age. His father was an old-time fiddler, and his mother sang and played the concertina.
Jones’ older brother gifted him a 75-cent guitar, and the young boy spent countless hours learning the instrument. By age 11, he had mastered the guitar enough to play at local dances.
By his high school years, the family had relocated to Akron, Ohio, and Louis fell in love with country music’s first star, Jimmie Rodgers. While a student at West High School, he won a talent contest with a performance of a pair of Rodgers’ songs.
Louis used the grand prize — $50 — to buy his first Gibson Guitar. He also landed a regular gig on a local radio station, where he became known as the “Young Singer of Old Songs”.
Becoming Grandpa Jones
Shortly after his radio debut, Jones linked up with comedian and harmonica player Joe Troyan. The duo soon joined the house band of the popular Lum and Abner Show in Cleveland. Eventually they moved to Boston, where they met fellow Kentuckian Bradley Kincaid.
It was Kincaid who bestowed the name “Grandpa” on him, owing to his grumpy nature in the early-morning work hours. From there, he built the character “Grandpa Jones” — a suspenders-wearing, ratty hat-and-boots sporting, yarn-spinning old-timer.
In 1937, Jones struck out on his own, playing stations in West Virginia and Cincinnati. Along the way, he met entertainer Cousin Emmy, who taught him how to play clawhammer banjo. This would become an integral part of his act.
At WLW, he joined forces with the Delmore Brothers and Merle Travis to form the Brown’s Ferry Four, one of country’s first and most popular gospel quartets. Jones made his recording debut alongside Travis in 1943 for King Records.
From there, he would rack up many hits from the label during the 1940s, including “It’s Raining Here This Morning,” “Eight More Miles to Louisville,” and “Mountain Dew.”
The Grand Ole Opry and Beyond
Grandpa Jones put his career on hold after he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. Returning to Cincinnatti after his service in 1946, the Grand Ole Opry beckoned the following year. Jones moved to Nashville, where he married much-lauded mandolin player Ramona Riggins.
In the fall of 1968, Jones joined the long-running country music variety show Hee-Haw, where he garnered laughs aplenty with routines such as “What’s for Supper?”
In January 1998, Jones suffered two strokes after a performance at the Grand Ole Opry. He died on February 19, 1998, in Hermitage, Tennessee, at age 84.
Featured image by Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The post Born 113 Years Ago Today in Kentucky, the ‘Hee Haw’ Star and Country Music Hall of Famer Known as “Everybody’s Grandpa” appeared first on American Songwriter.