Grandpa Jones

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Grandpa Jones

For other persons named Louis Jones, see Louis Jones (disambiguation).

Grandpa Jones (born Louis Marshall Jones October 20, 1913 in Niagara, Kentucky – February 19, 1998) was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer.

[edit] Background

Jones spent his teenage years in Akron, Ohio where he began singing country music tunes on a local radio show. By 1935 his pursuit of a musical career took him to WBZ (AM) radio in Boston, Massachusetts where he met musician/songwriter, Bradley Kincaid who gave him the nickname "Grandpa" due to his off-stage grumpiness at early-morning radio shows. Jones liked the name and decided to create a stage persona based around it.

Performing as "Grandpa Jones," he played the banjo, yodeled, and sang mostly old-time ballads. Some of his more famous songs include, "T is for Texas" and "Mountain Dew." Moving to Nashville, Tennessee, he became part of the Grand Ole Opry and was a regular cast member on the popular TV show, Hee Haw.

Jones was one of the most popular cast members of the long-running Hee Haw. A favorite skit had off-camera cast members asking "Hey Grandpa, what's for supper?" to which he'd describe either a delicious, country-style meal ("Buttermilk biscuits smothered in chicken gravy, home-fried potatoes, collard greens and Grandmother's fresh-baked blueberry pie à la mode!" and the cast would reply, "Yum, yum!") or, more often than not, something terrible ("Because you were bad, thawed out TV dinners!" at which the cast would scoff, "Yuck!"). A running gag was that the window he was pretending to polish in this skit had no glass, and that Jones would slip his fingers through the empty panes. Jones also joined castmates Buck Owens, Roy Clark and Kenny Price with a gospel segment at the end of each show.

A resident of rural Ridgetop, Tennessee outside of Nashville, he was a neighbor and friend of fellow musician David "Stringbean" Akeman. On the morning of November 11, 1973, Jones discovered the bodies of Akeman and his wife who had been murdered during the night by robbers.

In 1978 Grandpa Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. An autobiography of him, Everybody's Grandpa: Fifty Years Behind The Mike was published in 1984 (with assistance from Charles K. Wolfe).

In January of 1998, he suffered a stroke after his second show performance at the Grand Ole Opry and died a few weeks later. He is interred in the Luton Memorial Methodist Church cemetery in Nashville.

[edit] References

Jones, Louis M. "Grandpa" with Charles K. Wolfe. (1984). Everybody's Grandpa: Fifty Year Behind The Mike. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.
Wolfe, Charles K. (1998). "Grandpa Jones". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 269-270.