Grandpa Jones | |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Grandpa Jones |
| Born | Louis Marshall Jones (1913-10-20)October 20, 1913 Niagara, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Origin | Akron, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | February 19, 1998(1998-02-19) (aged 84) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1932–1998 |
| Labels | |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Service years | 1941–1945 |
| Conflicts | World War II |
Louis Marshall Jones (October 20, 1913 – February 19, 1998), known professionally asGrandpa Jones, was an Americanbanjo player andold time/country music singer. He was inducted as a member of theCountry Music Hall of Fame in 1978.[1]
Jones was born in the small farming community ofNiagara inHenderson County, Kentucky, the youngest of 10 children in a sharecropper's family.[2] His father was anold-time fiddle player, and his mother was a ballad singer and adept on theconcertina.[3] His first instrument was guitar.[4] Ramona Riggins, one of several women who began to gain some recognition in a musical form long dominated by men[4][5] was Grandpa's wife and musical partner of over 30 years.[6] Ramona first started playing the mandolin when she was six or seven years old.[6] Jones spent his teenaged years inAkron, Ohio, where he began singing country music tunes on a radio show on WJW. In 1931, Jones joined the Pine Ridge String Band, which provided the musical accompaniment for theLum and Abner show. By 1935, his pursuit of a musical career took him toWBZ radio inBoston, Massachusetts, where he met musician/songwriterBradley Kincaid, who gave him the nickname "Grandpa Jones" when he was 22 years old, because of his off-stage grumpiness at early-morning radio shows. Jones liked the name and decided to create a stage persona based around it. Later in life, he lived inMountain View, Arkansas. In the 1940s, he met rising country radio starCousin Emmy, from whom he learned to play thebanjo.
Performing as Grandpa Jones, he played the guitar or banjo,yodeled, and sang mostly old-timeballads. By 1937, Jones had made his way to West Virginia, where Cousin Emmy taught Jones the art of theclawhammer style of banjo playing, which gave a rough, backwoods flavor to his performances.[7] His first experience playing music in public came at the age of 11 or thereabouts. The music of the WLS Barn Dance in Chicago was a major influence on Louis, as were theJimmie Rodgers records his sister brought home. In 1942, Jones joinedWLW inCincinnati, Ohio. There, he met fellow KentuckianMerle Travis. In 1943, they made their recording debuts together forSyd Nathan's upstartKing Records.[1] Jones was making records under his own name for King by 1944 and had his first hit with "It's Raining Here This Morning."
His recording career was put on hold when he enlisted in the United States Army duringWorld War II. Discharged in 1946, he recorded again for King. Through 1946–1949, when several Opry cast members (Clyde Moody andChubby Wise among them) and he were invited to become a part of the burgeoning world of television by Washington, DC, entrepreneur Connie B Gay, he became a cast member at theOld Dominion Barn Dance, broadcast over WRVA in Richmond, Virginia.[5] In March 1946, he moved toNashville, Tennessee, and started performing on theGrand Ole Opry. He married Ramona Riggins on October 14, 1946. As an accomplished performer herself, she would take part in his performances. Jones' vaudeville humor was a bridge to television. His more famous songs include "T For Texas", "Are You from Dixie", "Night Train to Memphis", "Mountain Dew", and "Eight More Miles to Louisville".
In the fall of 1968,[5] Jones became a charter cast member on the long-running television showHee Haw, often responding to the show's skits with his trademark phrase "Outrageous". He also played banjo, by himself or with banjo playerDavid "Stringbean" Akeman. A musical segment featured in the early years had Jones and "his lovely wife Ramona" singing while ringing bells held in their hands and strapped to their ankles. A favorite skit had off-camera cast members ask, "Hey Grandpa, what's for supper?", in which he would describe a delicious, country-style meal, often in a rhyming,talking blues-style. Sometimes, he would describe something not so good; i.e. "Because you were bad, thawed outTV dinners!"
A resident of ruralRidgetop, Tennessee, outside Nashville, he was a neighbor and friend of fellow musicianDavid "Stringbean" Akeman. On the morning of November 11, 1973, Jones discovered the bodies of Akeman and his wife, Estelle, who had been murdered during the night by robbers.[8] Jones testified at the trial of the killers; his testimony helped to secure a conviction.[9]
In 1978, Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His autobiography,Everybody's Grandpa: Fifty Years Behind the Mike, was published in 1984.[10] In 2023, Jones was inducted into theAmerican Banjo Museum Hall of Fame in the Historical category.[11]
In January 1998, Jones suffered two strokes after his second show performance on theGrand Ole Opry. He died at 7:00 pm Central Time on February 19, 1998, at the McKendree Village Home Health Center in Hermitage, Tennessee, at age 84. He was buried in the Luton Memorial Methodist Church cemetery in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.[12]
Jones recorded for several labels, includingRCA Victor,King Records andMonument.
| Year | Single | US Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1944 | "It's Raining Here This Morning" | — |
| 1946 | "Eight More Miles to Louisville" | — |
| 1947 | "Mountain Dew" | — |
| 1947 | "Old Rattler" | — |
| 1951 | "Fifteen Cents Is All I Got" | — |
| 1953 | "I'm No Communist" | — |
| 1958 | "Daylight Saving Time" | — |
| 1959 | "The All-American Boy" | 21 |
| 1962 | "T for Texas" | 5 |
| 1963 | "Night Train to Memphis" | — |
