Jostes Sisters Renfro Valley Photographic Collection

John Lair started the Renfro Valley Barn Dance radio program while he worked at Cincinnati's WLW. His radio programs were heavy on comedy, turn-of-the-century sentimental songs, old English ballads, and rural string band music. The two programs he is best known for are the Saturday night Renfro Valley Barn Dance and Sunday morning Renfro Valley Gatherin'. He also set about building his Kentucky country music tourist complex in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, that eventually opened in 1939. His performers were also in great demand for shows at schools, movie theaters, and county fairs. During much of the 1940s he kept a tent show on the road from May to October that ranged all the way from Georgia to upper New York State and parts of New England. Mildred and Pauline Jostes, of Peoria, Illinois, were among the performers who traveled with Lair's Renfro Valley road show in the 1940s. The road show cast appeared in theaters and other indoor venues in colder months Most of the photos and memorabilia collected by the Jostes sisters comes from the 1940s. However, some postcards and photographs in the collection represent subsequent correspondence or visits with former friends and colleagues who performed with the Renfro Valley Barn Dance.