GRANDPA JONES
Name: Louis Marshall Jones
Born: 20 October 1913
Died: 19 February 1998
Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones (born October 20, 1913 in Niagara, Kentucky -
February 19, 1998) was an American banjo player and "old time" country and
gospel music singer.
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. The vaudevillian humor was a bridge to television entertainment. Jones
played a style of banjo called frailing, which gave it the rough back woods
flavor of his performances. Some of his more famous songs include, "T is for
Texas" and "Mountain Dew." He also wrote the song "Eight More Miles to
Louisville". 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.
Name: Louis Marshall Jones
Born: 20 October 1913
Died: 19 February 1998
Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones (born October 20, 1913 in Niagara, Kentucky -
February 19, 1998) was an American banjo player and "old time" country and
gospel music singer.
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. The vaudevillian humor was a bridge to television entertainment. Jones
played a style of banjo called frailing, which gave it the rough back woods
flavor of his performances. Some of his more famous songs include, "T is for
Texas" and "Mountain Dew." He also wrote the song "Eight More Miles to
Louisville". 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.