“In the Foothills of the Smokies, Way Down in Union County” (Part 1)

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One of the great things about eastern Tennessee is the countless contributions it’s given the world with sons and daughters who became country music legends. (Or, if you hate country music, that can be a bad thing. ) While on my way home I paid a visit to two towns in Union County, Tennessee that helped make country music legendary. The first stop was Maynardville. It’s the county seat of Union County. If it weren’t for country music it wouldn’t have been thought of as anything else. However, two Hall of Fame greats were born in the small town. Carl Smith (disclaimer: my dad’s favorite singer) was born there in 1927. His career spanned from the early 1950s until the 1970s, when he retired from music and became a horse farmer. In addition to his long list of hits, he also gave the world his daughter, Carlene Carter (from his marriage to June Carter…yes, as in June Carter Cash). He died of a stroke in 2010. But country music’s incredible popularity was personified in the other Maynardville native son, one Roy Claxton Acuff. While people today call George Strait “King George,” the only plaque in the Hall of Fame with the words “King of Country Music” on them belongs to Mr. Acuff. Acuff wasn’t going to sing (if you listen to the song linked below, you’ll probably claim he couldn’t ); rather, his way of putting Maynardville on the map was to be a pitcher for the New York Giants. That was derailed thanks to sunstroke, which took Acuff years to recover from. While confined indoors, he borrowed his dad’s fiddle and began teaching himself the instrument. As there isn’t much sunlight in a recording studio or on a stage at night, his new career path was set. Alton Delmore (in his book Truth Is Stranger Than Publicity) claimed responsibility for helping get Acuff to Nashville, but Acuff was a HOT property in Knoxville on the radio without any help. That popularity got him a recording deal, major hits such as “Wabash Cannonball” and “The Great Speckle Bird,” and the rest is history. And I do mean history. During World War II Japanese kamikaze pilots attacked with reported cries of, “To hell with Roosevelt! To hell with Babe Ruth! And to hell with Roy Acuff!” Acuff and his son co-wrote a song called “Smokey Mountain Memories” (not to be confused with Mel Street’s hit “Smoky Mountain Memory,” like anyone would know either song….) that remembered “a better place and time” growing up there. Roy Acuff was the first celebrity I ever met, in 1968. There wasn’t a thing “celebrity” about him, because the simple country boy from Maynardville was a simple man from Maynardville. All the fame in the world didn’t change that. Roy’s song “Smokey Mountain Memories” (and yeah, I know, regarding his singing…..but I love it):