Renfro Valley Barn Dance (Radio program) -- History.

Abstract Doctor Howard Hopkins was a popular performer on mid- western radio in the 1930s and 1940s. Born January 26, 1900, in Harlan County, Kentucky, Hopkins began playing banjo during his boyhood on an instrument his father crafted for him. The Hopkins family moved to Rockcastle County, where Doc’s neighbors included his future radio colleagues John Lair, Karl Davis, and Harty Taylor. In 1930 Lair invited his schoolmates to Chicago, and Hopkins named the new band the Cumberland Ridge...

Abstract John Lair was born in Rockcastle County, Kentucky on July 1, 1894.  His father was a farmer and Lair attended a one-room school before going on to finish high school in the county seat town of Mount Vernon. After army service in World War One, he worked in a variety of jobs that included teaching school and editing a small-town newspaper.  Work as an insurance company claims adjuster brought him to Chicago in the late 1920s where he became interested in radio.  He was able to find...

Abstract The collecting activity reflected in this collection began in the early 1950s and continued well into the 1970s. After Rueben Powell’s 1968 retirement from work as chief utility engineer at Wright Patterson Airforce Base in Ohio, Powell and his wife Retha started the Renfro Valley Tape Club as a means of sharing the fruits of his collecting with other country music fans. Its appeal was particularly substantial among Powell's contemporaries who were disenchanted with the then newer country...