Roy Acuff: The Smoky Mountain Boy

By Elizabeth Schlappi

This biography of a Nashville legend is “one of the best studies of a country music personality that has been issued to date” (The Journal of Country Music).

Roy Acuff was the first living performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was an artist whose devotion to his work boosted not only his own career, but also the credibility and popularity of his field. This country music legend helped bring the fledgling industry and its capital, The Grand Ole Opry, from regional entertainment to certified national institution.

His career began back in 1938, when this son of a small-town Baptist preacher made his first appearance on the famed stage in Nashville. This first step toward stardom transformed his life. Roy Acuff: The Smoky Mountain Boy draws upon personal interviews with Acuff’s contemporaries, friends, and family as well as Acuff himself—tracing the roots of his career through the evolution of his musical style and his distinctive American art form.

“An important and especially fitting tribute.” —Country Music Magazine

“Must reading for fans, scholars, or anyone who has more than a passing interest in Roy Acuff.” —The Nashville Banner

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Feb 28, 1993
• ISBN: 9781455611522

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To My Father

John Carl Schlappi, M.D.

Below are the acknowledgments for the original publication of this book. This new edition contains an additional chapter which chronicles the events of Roy Acuff's life since 1978. Acknowledgments for the new material precede the chapter.

Acknowledgments

Initially I did not consider myself a biographer, merely a collector of Acuff memorabilia. My ambition at first was to acquire a complete collection of Acuff recordings. I therefore compiled an Acuff discography (see Appendix B). When Roy was presented with this list of his recordings, he was so impressed that he said, If you ever come to Nashville, I'll show you a good time. I have taken Roy up on his offer four times—in 1964, 1967, 1970, and 1973—and he and Mildred have made good on the promise. Only after the first two of these trips, during which I gathered a tremendous amount of biographical information, did I gradually begin to consider myself an Acuff biographer. The drafts of this biography have been checked and rechecked by the Acuffs and a great many people in Nashville.

Through the years Roy Acuff has been the subject of many magazine and newspaper articles. Recently his life has been discussed in some books. Album jackets also provide Acuffish information. During my 20 years of collecting Acuff memorabilia, I have corresponded with well over 1,000 people. Many of these letters have yielded biographical data. Naturally I am grateful for all these sources (see Bibliography).

However, the heart of this biography is the information gained during my trips to Tennessee, and I am particularly in debt to the following people:

Mr. and Mrs. Roy Acuff: These two delightful people have provided

                    some of the information directly and have

                        introduced me, sometimes directly and

                      sometimes indirectly, to all of the people

                              listed below.

The Acuff Family: Mr. Roy Neill Acuff

                  Mrs. Hartsell D. Phillips (Juanita Acuff)

                  Mrs. Robert L. Allen, Jr. (Sue Acuff)

                Mr. Briscoe Acuff

                  Mr. Claude Acuff

The Smoky Mountain Boys: All of the boys have been most gra-

                                cious. The following are the ones I have

                            pestered to the greatest extent:

                          Mr. Jimmie Riddle and his wife, Susie

                          Mr. Pete Kirby

                          Mr. Howdy Forrester

Others: Mr. and Mrs. Powell Stamper

        Mr. Wesley Rose

        Mr. Grant Turner

        Mr. D Kilpatrick

Thanks to these people and to all the other fine Tennesseeans who have been considerate to me.

Writing a manuscript is not enough. The next step is publication, and some very wonderful people insured that this was not an insurmountable step. David Butler and Bill Malone of the academic world provided assistance. Richard Wentworth and Judy McCulloh of the University of Illinois Press gave invaluable aid. Mr. Wentworth suggested the manuscript to Pelican. Judy sent reams of information that a neophyte author should have. In San Diego, two experts on books and publishing were generous with their advice: Joe Herweg, a long-time friend, and Ralph De Sola. And, of course, gratitude is due Pelican Publishing Company, especially to editor Herb Luthin, who molded the manuscript into publishable shape, and to Dr. Milburn Calhoun and his brother, James, for having the faith to publish such a comprehensive Roy Acuff biography.

And, finally, I want to thank my mother, who put up with me when I shut myself in my room during four summers for weeks at a time while engrossed in deep concentration and only emerged to obtain her help with some phrasing and a great deal of spelling.

Elizabeth Roe Schlappi

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I

The Early Years

Consider the Source

If one were to ask Roy Acuff to speak of the things of which he is most proud, the subject topping the list would be his ancestry.

In 1066 when William the Conqueror of Normandy invaded England, some of his companions in arms were French soldiers named D'Acre, or Aculf. Theobald Aculf was granted lands from Henry I between 1100 and 1135, and during the 1100s and 1200s Aculf men went on the Crusades to rescue the Biblical lands from the Turks. In so doing they earned the three silver scallop shells that prominently occupy the red shield on the Acuff family coat of arms, which is described in this way:

Acuff—Fitz-Acuff, D'Acre

        Arms: Gules (red), three escallops (scallop shells—badge of pil-

                grims to the Holy Land), argent (silver)

    Acuff, Dacre of Fitz-Aculf, named from Dacrc, Cumberland, de-

scended from Aculf, a companion in arms to the Conqueror, Theobald de

Dacre or Aculf granted lands, from Henry I to Carlisle Abbey (Mon: 74).

Gilber Aculf, his son made further grant. Adam Aculf was the grand father

of William de D'acre with whom Peerage acct comences.

After several hundred years of living in England the Acuffs emigrated to the New World and settled in the mountains of Virginia and the Carolinas. Later they moved to East Tennessee.

Roy Acuff's paternal grandfather, Corum Acuff, who lived and died in Maynardville, was a Union soldier during the Civil War, and also was an attorney and served as a Republican legislator in the Tennessee General Assembly. One of his strongest political credos was that government should be absolutely honest. This belief influenced his children and was to emerge in his grandson's gubernatorial campaign many years later.

A. W. Carr, Roy's maternal grandfather, was a general practitioner of medicine and rode horseback or drove his horse and buggy throughout his native Union County on countless errands of mercy. His practice was first based in Luttrell; then, by the turn of the century, he moved to Maynardville.

Unlike many names, such as Jones or Smith, Acuffs the world over seem to be fairly closely related and whenever one meets another Acuff they usually try to figure out their family tree connections and frequently succeed.

Others usually pronounce the name A-cuff, but the Acuffs themselves pronounce it ^4-kf. The Acuff clan of East Tennessee is proud of its heritage and has had many reunions in Knoxville's Fountain City Park. These gatherings, held more or less regularly since the 1930s, draw as many as 500 Acuffs. One is frequently Roy Acuff, to whom probably over half the crowd could be traced as cousins. Sometimes Roy brings his band, on other occasions he comes alone. Once he borrowed a fiddle and then sang a capella. At one reunion Judd Acuff, a Knoxville attorney, read the family history he had compiled.

Other prominent Acuffs include Timothy Acuff, a Methodist minister who, during the last century, established a church that is still standing in East Tennessee; Dr. Herbert Acuff, a widely known surgeon who ran a Knoxville clinic; and Arthur Acuff, a Maynardville banker.

Maynardville

Neill Acuff, son of Corum Acuff, was born in Maynardville on April 16, 1877. As a young man he took a general course at CarsonNewman College back in the days when it was known as Mossy Creek. Around 1898 he married a Maynardville native, Ida Florence Carr, born October 21, 1879, daughter of Dr. A. W. Carr. For the next 21 years the young couple lived in many homes in and around Maynardville. On several occasions they moved as far away as Knoxville. One of their favorite jokes was that after 20 years of marriage, they had moved 20 times.

Ida Can bore five children, all delivered by their Grandfather Carr. The oldest was Briscoe. Next was Juanita. The family then moved into what was later to be described in one of Roy's songs as An Old Three Room Shack. Here, on September 15, 1903, was born Roy Claxton Acuff. (Dr. P. P. Claxton was an educator whose efforts for country schools greatly impressed Neill Acuff, and it just so happened that he had given a speech in Maynardville earlier in 1903.) A home or two later saw the addition of Sue, and finally Claude, nicknamed Spot because of his freckles.

Times were hard in Union County and even though Neill Acuff was well educated for a country man, he had a tough time scratching a living for his growing family. As was the custom at that time, he informally read law books, which qualified him to practice law. He was the postmaster for a while, scoring 99.5 percent on the civil service test, and even did a little insurance work. For a year the family tried farming, using the nearby farm of Neill's brother, Frank. Roy was too young to help with the plowing. When Roy was ten or twelve, Neill Acuff decided to become a minister. In due time, he became ordained as a Missionary Baptist minister and preached the fundamentalist faith as pastor of the Maynardville Baptist Church.

Of course, even prior to this time, the family had attended church regularly, partly out of religious fervor and partly, as Briscoe later said, Out of self-defense. We were desperate for something to do. Spot remembered being dragged along barefooted and crying because he couldn't walk as fast as the others and frequently stubbed his toes. Roy attended church and Sunday school regularly during his young life until his music career forced him to work Sundays.

The children were taught the love of God and to believe fervently in the Ten Commandments and especially in the golden rule. Papa was kind, but a strict disciplinarian and never let the children forget the difference between right and wrong. When father was away, mama was more than capable of administering justice to any of the five who forgot these lessons.

The children occasionally would escape from parental control to roam the countryside and indulge in the usual escapades of youthful rural life. The youngest three were the most active and Roy was the most mischievous of all. Not a day passed but what he didn't get at least two whoppins. The razor strop wasn't so bad, but when papa cut branches off of an old pear tree, blood was drawn. Mama would whop, too, when she could catch Roy.

Roy didn't want to work—it gave him a headache. He wanted to play. He hated to hoe corn; might possibly have liked to plow, but was too small. Papa and Briscoe did that. He would usually play with the older boys, such as Vaughn Moore, and could run and jump as well as any. Just before leaving Maynardville, Roy got a job in a rock quarry where John Huddleston was superintendent. They crushed rock for roads.

One of Roy's escapades involved an elderly neighbor lady's lone goose. There was always a group of politicians hanging around the courthouse, drinking moonshine. One day Roy and Earl Bill Dirty Beeler picked up some of this whisky and while Bill Dirty held the goose, Roy poured the moonshine down its throat. The goose began to squawk, then pitched back and forth. Finally the drunken creature plunged into a nearby branch flapping its wings wildly—and . drowned. The old lady threw a fit and the two boys had to pay the cost.

Most of his other activities were less harmful to property. Roy found that he could balance almost anything on his chin or nose. He would go out into the fields and pick up an item as heavy as a 45pound plowshare and, using a folded hankerchief for cushioning, walk around with it balanced on his chin. At the other extreme he learned to bounce light objects, such as broom straws, up and down on his nose.

In the summer the kids liked to pitch horseshoes on the courthouse lawn, and sometimes a group of boys would gather rocks, sticks, and dogs and go rabbit hunting. There were no organized sports teams and very little equipment. Town entertainment included the annual Fourth of July celebration on the courthouse lawn, and the square dances on Saturday nights. And there was the County Court Day, which occurred every three months when the Union County magistrates assembled in Maynardville, the county seat. Spot remembered that once Roy and a friend put on a skit, a dialogue between two people. This was probably the first time that Roy Acuff was on stage.

In the winter the children played rook, and enjoyed drinking a hot beverage known as ginger stew. There were no phones or movies. Roy was about 16 before he saw his first movie.

Roy frequently did the family marketing. Mama would send him to the store, sometimes with money and sometimes with trade goods, like chickens or eggs. If what he had was worth more than the items on the shopping list, the storekeeper would give him a due bill, with the difference written on it.

The family with whom the Acuffs were the most friendly in Maynardville was the Huddlestons. Even today Roy still calls Lilly Huddleston his second mother. John Huddleston was a postman serving with Postmaster Neill Acuff.

The winters get mighty cold in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and one very bad winter the Moores, Ousleys, and Huddlestons helped the Acuffs take wood with a mule down to their home. The snow was up to the mule's stomach. It was so cold that without help the Acuff family might have frozen. Neighbors and family had great importance in Maynardville.

Since other Acuffs, including both Grandfather Carr's and Grandfather Acuffs families, also lived in Maynardville, there were many family gatherings. The rule at home was to always clean your plate before the next course was served. So Grandfather Acuff never failed to serve Roy his dessert first, usually a cobbler or a custard, to make sure Roy would get to eat it.

At Christmas time each of the five children received a stocking containing what to them were rare tropical fruits—a banana and an orange, a nigger toe (Brazil nut), and some smaller nuts. Also, papa somehow managed to scrape together enough money to buy each child a toy. One Christmas Roy received a little wooden monkey that ran up a string, but the toy broke after a few days. Strangely enough, Christmas, not the Fourth of July, was the one time of year when the children were allowed to have fireworks. Once Roy hestitated to throw a five-incher and his hand became burned and very swollen.

Roy had to go to school, but it was the bane of his existence and he hated it. The schoolhouse had two rooms, the Little Room, for grades one through four, and the Big Room, for grades five through eight. Roy definitely graduated from the Little Room, and at least partially completed the Big Room before leaving Maynardville. Two of the many teachers were Professor Patrick and Professor Keller. On Friday of each week students had spelling bees, and debates were held once a month. Roy learned to recite the Presidents in order and could rattle them off years later. He also was especially impressed with the little poetry verses in his speller. His favorite was Sixty golden minutes, each with sixty golden seconds, and as he commented years later, he thought about how time can never be recaptured once it has passed.

However, as impressed as he was with this verse, Roy spent most of his time in school being, in his own words, a terror. But he hastened to add I wasn't really bad, just mischievous. He did much of this mischief behind his huge geography book, which he held upright on his desk. From this concealment he could make faces at the other children, balance pencils on his chin, or throw spitwads at the teacher. Sometimes the teacher would draw a circle on the blackboard and he would have to stand with his nose inside the circle. This punishment was mild compared with the switch—when the business end of it wore out, the teacher used the handle. Perhaps what the young boy considered the most severe punishment of all was when he was ordered to sit next to a girl.

During grammar school Roy received many beatings by the teacher. The most severe of these occurred when he was in the seventh or eighth grade—for stomping the other children's marbles into the playground. His shirt was torn and his back was bloody.

A more pleasant part of Roy Acuff's childhood was the music around him. When he was a very small child, he began playing the Jew's harp, and early in the mornings he would crawl under the kitchen table and entertain mama as she was preparing breakfast. Years later, Roy recalled that he really became so proficient with this instrument that he might have been able to give some real competition to Jimmie Riddle, a member of his band who is well known for his versatility on just about anything musical. Roy also played the harmonica, but with lesser skill.

During the summer the children would often make cornstalk fiddles. The pulp would be cleaned out of a length of stalk and the remaining stringly fibers were played with a stick. It was impossible to get any real music out of one of these contraptions, of course, but everybody tried, including Roy. It was something to pass the time during the long summer days.

Family and friends remember that Roy seemed to be always whistling or singing, frequently with accompaniment from an empty tomato can, on which he would get some nice thumps by beating and strumming the sides. During an occasional baseball game, Vaughn Moore and John Huddleston remember, additional entertainment was sometimes provided by Roy with a tune thumped out on his tomato can or a bucket.

As part of their religious upbringing, the children were taught sacred songs. They sang in church, although they were never members of the choir. The influence of these old-time church songs emerged later in Roy's career. Roy also sang in the BYPU (Baptist Young People's Union), and in school.

The most meaningful part of Roy's early musical education was obtained at home. The children were raised-up on the traditional music of their forefathers, much of it coming from the British Isles. Some of the songs, of course, were of more recent origin. Roy especially remembers singing the ballad about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

The Acuffs were well liked and their home was a frequent meeting place where old-time music was played. Roy's father loved to fiddle and was a good country fiddler, and his Uncle Charlie, who also lived in Maynardville, was extremely proficient. Roy's mother played the piano and guitar. Both parents had fine singing voices. Once in a while, Roy would try to play his father's fiddle. Although his papa and Uncle Charlie offered encouragement, at this time Roy learned little except not to touch the horsehair, or where the rosin worked. He usually contented himself by singing lustily.

The musical talent Roy displayed at this time was not extraordinary, and neither family nor friends were particularly impressed. But even though young Roy might not have demonstrated much talent in Maynardville, he feels that his heritage gave him a truly authentic background for his music:

Many, many times back in Maynardville, when I was just a kid, in the real cold winter nights and the mornings when Papa would get out of bed when the house was warming up after he had build the fires, he would take the old fiddle out from under the bed and play it up there in the hollow, and it would just—it was just so pleasing. Although he wasn't a real talented violinist, he was a good country fiddler. But those tones in the wee hours of the morning just before daylight, before we went out to feed, it was something—it built something in me that I have never forgotten. And I just often think of my father . . . Many times have I at the house where we lived in the little three room cottage—it wasn't a cottage, it was just a little three room shack—in fact I wrote a song on it and recorded it, The Little Three Room Shack. But anyway, many a night we laid in bed and listened to those dogs up on the hill run a fox, and we didn't have to go to the fields or up on the hill to listen to a fox race. We merely just laid there in the bed or sat on the front porch and listened to them run at night, and it's beautiful. . . . The Smoky Mountains—it has a haze there that the other mountains don't have and it's real beautiful—very, very fine country.*

*Stone tape.

After leaving Maynardville, Roy Acuff has made a point of returning often. When he does he just doesn't go past and wave, but spends time talking with the friends and relatives who are still there. And Maynardville hasn't forgotten him. Some time ago the citizens constructed a white wooden marker directing tourists to the Old Three Room Shack. They put it on the courthouse lawn so it could be easily seen. Sure enough, the tourists mistook the courthouse for an old Acuff mansion and asked if Roy was born there. This marker finally rotted and John Huddleston put up another, but that one fell to mysterious causes after a very short time. So a stone monument with a replica of Roy Acuff's Country Music Hall of Fame plaque was erected. When Roy visited on June 15, 1968, he said, I'm proud of the one in Nashville, but I'm much prouder of this one here in Maynardville.

The courthouse burned to the ground around 1969 and when it was reconstructed the plaque was not included. During the 1960s there were efforts to purchase the Old Three Room Shack, but the owners refused to sell. The shack subsequently was torn down for construction of a highway.

Rabbit

On November 19, 1919, when Roy Acuff was 16, the family piled into Maynardville's only car, owned by John Huddleston, and went to their new home in Fountain City, a Knoxville suburb. Neill Acuff had decided to make this move because of the city's better educational advantages. Spot, who was almost 10, remembered this well, his first automobile ride. John Huddleston had scared him to death with stories about life in the big city and so Spot made a pair of brass knuckles from the handles of an old galvanized wash tub, and carried them on the trip.

(The recollections of Roy and his associates and data obtained from sources such as school annuals and newspapers only provide conflicting evidence of which years Roy went to high school. It has therefore been necessary to fit these conflicting reports together in such a way as to make the most sensible story.)

Upon his arrival in Fountain City, Roy spent at least one year completing whatever pre-high school education had been unfinished in Maynardville. He entered Fountain City's Central High School in the fall of either 1920 or 1921, and 1924 appears to be his official graduation year. However, he played a major role in school activities during the following year and quite possibly was even around as late as the school year of 1925-26. Although his attitude toward the three Rs hadn't improved since Maynardville, his grades were average.

Roy was not a member of the Glee Club, but one day the principal, Miss Hassie Gresham, heard singing outside her office and asked the soloist, Roy, to come in. She proceeded to request that he lead the singing in chapel the next morning. Roy objected, pleading inexperience and fright. She insisted, and under her guidance he soon liked it so much that he sang regularly.

In 1970, Roy said this about Miss Gresham, who retired in 1947: She has meant more and more to me as the years have passed. I visit her regularly whenever I'm in East Tennessee. She forced me to do things. She knew I could do them, but I was shy. On several occasions Miss Gresham literally pushed Roy onto the stage for class plays.

As with the chapel singing, he soon grew to like performing before an audience and was in most of the school plays. Some were Shakespearean, others were of the minstrel variety. Frequently he played opposite a favorite classmate and school pal, Sarah Peters. She soon married, then died in childbirth. The tragedy so touched Roy that he later wrote and recorded the song, Sad Memories. Because of the emotions it raised, he rarely sang the song.

He was assistant sports editor of the school paper and worked on the staff of the school annual, Sequoyah. Roy also was secretarytreasurer of the C Club, to which only varsity athletes could belong.

Roy spent so much time in sports that he really didn't have much time for or interest in dating. He excelled in athletics, earning thirteen letters, four each in football and basketball and five in baseball— not bad, considering he only weighed around 130 pounds.

The colors of Central High were red and black and its teams were called the Bobcats. Sometimes the school was called the Red and Blacks, sometimes the County School. The City School was Knoxville City High School and the blue-and-white Blue Devils were arch rivals of the Bobcats. Eligibility didn't mean much; some grayheaded old men were often kept year after year.

Upon his arrival at high school, in 1921, Roy definitely remembers that the first sport he went out for was football. When his classmates inquired if he was going to try out for football, Roy said, What's that? In fact, he played in the first football game he ever saw. The team practiced on a rocky unmarked field behind the school. Roy played halfback, mostly as a substitute. The first game the team played on a marked field was when it went to Tennessee Military Institute. By 1922 he started part of the time, sometimes at right half and sometimes at left half. The other backs were Emmett Shawn and Dutch Mathis.

The fall of 1923 saw the arrival of Pinkie Walden, who became a backfield star. Pinkie became well known for his fantastic evasive runs. Emmett Shawn and Roy Acuff became the regular starting ends. Roy was nicknamed Rabbit because of his speed on endarounds and going downfield on punts and passes.

The team's greatest moment came on Saturday, November 22, 1924, when the Bobcats beat the Blue Devils for the first time in five years, 13-0. The game was played in Shields-Watkins Stadium before the largest crowd in Knoxville ever to view a high school game. After the game Central High was jubilant and Roy scaled a three-story building and painted a large 13-0 on its top. A friend, Nick Charles, climbed up to take a picture, then lost his balance. Nick managed to catch himself but the camera fell to the ground, undamaged, and the picture appeared in the Sequoyah. While Roy Acuff was not a star, he was an integral part of Central High football during the 1921-24 seasons. The team's average weight was about 151 pounds.

In basketball the five-foot seven-inch youngster played running guard and sometimes center. On occasion he could leap and touch the hoop. Roy played on the varsity team during the seasons of 1921-25. He was the captain of the Bobcats the last two seasons and they almost won the state championship both of those years. One of their biggest games was a 25-22 loss to Lenoir City on March 7, 1925.

In baseball, his favorite sport, Roy was the team's star pitcher. He had an excellent curve, lots of slow pitches, and fine control. Roy played other positons, usually in the outfield, between pitching assignments. He hit some of the longest homers ever made in the parks at Knoxville, and newspaper reports of some games referred to him as Home Run Acuff. Roy loved the game and planned on a career in professional baseball, then professional coaching.

The 1925 Sequoyah praised Roy's athletic ability, and stated that in his years at Central High School he has shown one outstanding trait of character—that of loyalty. And loyalty to a teammate caused a fight that Briscoe remembers.

One fall the football Bobcats traveled to Cleveland, Tennessee, for a game. Afterward, a Cleveland player pushed one of Roy's teammate's face into the drinking fountain, knocking out several teeth. There was no fuss at the time, but the Bobcats knew the culprit. A week or so later, Briscoe and Roy went to a University of Tennessee game. Roy sat on the student side, Briscoe across the way in the visitors' section. Pretty soon Briscoe was amazed to see a fellow come rolling head over heels down the long staircase of the stadium. A policeman, sitting next to Briscoe, casually remarked, I know what that guy did and I know who hit him. Brisco didn't say a thing.

During Roy's high school years, his father was the pastor of the Fountain City Missionary Baptist Church. Occasionally the congregation would be entertained by a quartet made up of Briscoe, Juanita, Sue, and Roy. About this time, however, a weak stomach, which was to plague him the rest of his life, made his father decide to leave the ministry and enter law. Upon his graduation from law school in Knoxville he was admitted to the Tennessee bar. Although Neill Acuff did a lot of trial work, Roy claims that his father, even as a lawyer, was never well off financially because he was too honest. In fact, he never had enough money to own his own home.

In later years Roy's education became a matter of speculation. Some of the stories credited him to be a law graduate of Harvard; some gave him a master's degree. The truth is that Roy graduated from Central High and has never claimed other scholastic honors.

Goofing Off

After graduating from high school, Roy was offered an athletic tuition at his father's alma mater, Carson-Newman. However, despite his parents' wish for him to continue his education, the thought was abhorrent to Roy and he refused the tuition. So Roy more or less goofed off from the time he left Central High until a fateful July day in 1929.

During these years Roy credits his oldest brother with helping to keep the family together. Briscoe had a state civil engineering job, working on highway construction. As for Roy, well, papa kept urging him to find a good steady job. But the young man, while not actually running from work, really never did make an effort to settle down in a solid occupation.

On two occasions, though, Roy left Knoxville and went north to find work. Although primarily interested in a sports career, he also remembered his pleasant experiences on the Central High stage, and the thought of life in show business had some appeal. Accordingly, Roy went to Chicago to get into the burlesque shows, but the routines were too vulgar and, besides, he didn't have the proper training and so he failed to make the grade. The other time was when Roy, like many East Tennesseeans, went to Detroit to get a job on an auto assembly line. He put doors on Fords for exactly two hours. Roy also found that he was uncomfortable in the North. The people there talked too fast for him to understand what was being said.

Back home, he had a few odd jobs. He worked as a levelman with a surveying team of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, which was working on the elevations for Norris Dam. He also helped Charley Duncan, a Negro, shine shoes at Sherman Wallaces's Fountain City Barber Shop. This was strictly for fun, not a paying job. Roy later said, He would shine one shoe and I did the other one, only I had a better rhythm in my shine rag. After Roy had become famous, Charley hung a diploma in the barber shop that testified to his shoe shining ability, it was signed by Roy. When the shop burned in 1939, Roy flew from Nashville to offer what help he could to Charley.

Having once played on the Louisville & Nashville baseball team led to a job Roy held for two or three years, as a railroad callboy. His duties included rounding up (calling) the crews to their assigned trains and giving orders for turn arounds. On a turn around he would direct a train to go from the main terminal to some other place on the line, either another terminal or up a branch track to its end, where the train would be turned around and then go back to Knoxville.* He worked at night and was able to sleep most of the time because his kindly boss would awaken him only when he was needed. This left the days free for ball playing. Roy loved the trains and learned to imitate locomotive whistles by puckering his lips, placing his tongue against his teeth and hollering from deep down in his throat. He put this skill to good use later.

Another favorite loafing place was John Copeland's Fountain City Garage.** It was a place where one thing led to another. Roy was always ready for anything—from a fox hunt to a boxing match. Occasionally, he and some friends would organize some minstrel shows.

*Clarification of the terms callboy and turn around was provided by Scott Irby, a railroad buff.

**A. C. Dubkleberger, King of Country Music: The Life Story of Roy Acuff (Nashville: Williams Printing Company, 1971), p. 35.

During these years Neill Acuff practiced law with Hobart F. Atkins and Sam J. Thornburgh. Roy can remember sitting in the courtroom many times and listening to his father plead a murder trial with so much persuasion and sincerity that it would bring tears to the jury's eyes. Like his son,