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Posted by Frank Baker
on July 5, 2009, 8:11 pm, in reply to "Re: The Browns."
69.72.37.119
Hi Karen,
I've also read your postings re: Homer and Jethro, but I think the following comment belongs here, regarding the CMHF.
I just spent a couple of days travelling in the company of the only remaining three children of "Pop" Stoneman, Patsy, Donna, and Roni, assisting in taking them back to their homes in Tennessee after a festival in Pennsylvania. I know how hard Patsy Stoneman worked to get her father recognized and put into the CMHF. It was a tireless effort on her part, lasting many years, and serves to illustrate the hard-headedness and lack of knowledge of country music pioneers on the part of the folks who decide who to honor in the Hall. I am so thankful that it finally happened during HER lifetime, if it could not have happened during HIS.
An anecdote, relating to H&J and the Stonemans: In the book written by Roni Stoneman (banjo player and the "ironing board lady" on Hee Haw), she relates the following, and I quote: "Johnny Carson once had on his show Jethro Burns, the great mandolinist, and he said to him, 'Well, you must be the best mandolinist in the country!' 'No,' said Jethro, 'Donna Stoneman is.'"
Three lovely ladies, treasures in the world of country music. I highly recommend Roni's book "Pressing On," Roni Stoneman, as told to Ellen Wright, published by the University of Illinois Press.
(And I'll anxiously wait for your book on H&J as well!)
My best,
Frank Baker
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