It's a disgrace Carthage never honored Jim on the 50th
Posted by Larry Jordan on December 15, 2014, 5:37 pm Edited by board administrator December 16, 2014, 12:25 am
Looking back on 2014, it has been a wonderful year of remembrance for Jim Reeves fans, due to the plethora of new releases on him that I am proud to say I had a hand in: "The Great Jim Reeves" 8 CD set; "The Great Jim Reeves Anthology DVD Revised " edition; "Jim Reeves Rare & Unreleased" and "Jim Reeves & Friends Live From Nashville."
But what has Carthage, Texas, done to honor the famous singing star who grew up in Panola County? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Each year, the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame holds an August event at which new members are inducted into the HofF, and there are a couple of days' worth of entertainment.
I find it an absolute disgrace that in this, the 50th year since Reeves' passing, not a single tribute was paid to Gentleman Jim at any of the shows, either Friday night or Saturday in August.
For years, a woman named Tommie Ritter Smith has predominated the scene there. Her father and Tex were first cousins, and her husband, Bill, often performs for groups as Tex, wearing an original Tex suit and hat. Tommie heads the local Chamber of Commerce and has for MANY years.
Although in some of my CD and DVD booklets I have even given the Hall of Fame there some free publicity, my help has never been reciprocated. Those people wouldn't lift a finger to help me during the time I was researching my book. I also know that Mary Reeves had her own bad encounters with them and that's one reason she established a Jim Reeves Museum in Nashville, and not in East Texas.
The 13,000 square foot, $2.5 million Texas Country Music Hall of Fame was opened in 2002 and was SUPPOSED to honor Texans who have made a contribution to country music. So why is it that there is a huge bronze statute not only of Tex, but also his horse (White Flash) outside the museum?
Tommie has admitted she wanted a Tex Ritter museum in Carthage. And Dorothy Ritter, Tex's widow, even objected to the inclusion of Jim Reeves in the Hall of Fame, dismissively saying that he already had a monument two miles out of town, so why did he need to be in the museum too? Can you believe that?
And yet the museum's original purpose has been diluted by the induction of NON-Texans, even though Jim's inclusion was debated!
Though Tex was a star on the Grand Ole Opry and appeared in many westerns, let's face it: Far more people know Jim Reeves around the world than they do Tex, and I dare say many more fans come from all areas of the globe to make the pilgrimage to Carthage to see Jim's monument than they do to come and see a Tex exhibit. It is indisputable that Carthage's local economy has benefitted tremendously over the decades from those Reeves tourist dollars. I wonder how much money Ritter has pumped into local coffers by comparison?
The politics of this situation have stunk for years. And that's putting it mildly. The Ritter influence is so strong, that there is now a "JOHN Ritter Showcase" music event on Saturday morning, which is ridiculous because the late actor (one of two sons of Tex) was NOT a singer, and never pretended to be. Yet he too is in the MUSIC museum.
Granted, there is a display of Jim Reeves memorabilia temporarily on loan to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame but apparently the officials there thought so little of it that for a long time they never even bothered to take out an insurance policy to cover it against theft or fire!
For years, California collector James Newberry tried to work with city officials to locate his huge collection of Reeves memorabilia there, to no avail.
Typical of how Jim gets short shrift is an article which appears in "Hill Country Current" by Allan Kimball, in which he erroneously reports that the museum includes "the original control room of radio station KGRI in Henderson where JIMMIE ROGERS worked as a disc jockey." Note to Mr. Kimball: The radio equipment comes from where JIM REEVES worked. Jim is not even mentioned in the article!
Now that Tommie Ritter Smith is retiring, her daughter Cindy Deloney has been groomed to take her place, so my guess is things aren't going to improve.
The 21 member board that oversees the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame should have honored one of its two most famous citizens, Jim Reeves, in this milestone year. It is shameful that they did not.
Meanwhile, if you're visiting Texas, drive over to Henderson and see some truly personal Jim Reeves artifacts on display there at The Depot museum, thanks to the singer's nephew, John Rex Reeves. I'll post more about that soon. Henderson is where Jim got his start at radio station KGRI.
SHAME ON CARTHAGE FOR IGNORING JIM REEVES THIS YEAR and especially on Tommie Ritter Smith's failure to use her enormous influence over the community to make sure this took place. But I can't say it comes as much of a surprise, considering how things have been handled there for years. Maybe the town should be renamed RITTERVILLE and they can re-cast that bronze statue and depict Tommie Ritter Smith riding Tex's horse like she's ridden roughshod over the city for so long.
Re: It's a disgrace Carthage never honored Jim on the 50th
You are right Larry. Not only disgraceful, but unbelievable that such people could be so stupid. Since MONEY is a universal language, the best thing to do may be just to bypass this place. Jim Reeves fans, try to spend your money somewhere other than Carthage, and periodically let them know why you refuse to spend your money in their town.
Re: It's a disgrace Carthage never honored Jim on the 50th
Just more of the same, as far as how Jim has not received the recognition he's always deserved. It sounds to me that the Ritter family only wants Carthage to honor Tex, and no one else! Never mind that Jim was from there too, and certainly more well known than him. This is just so selfish on the part of the Ritter family. I think it's just pure jealousy. I would hope that Tex would even be appalled by his family's behavior if he knew what they were doing! It is a mystery that Mary chose Nashville to open the Jim Reeves Museum, but had Jim buried in Texas--unless that was his wish. As many others have said here, I think Jim would be remembered more today if his final resting place had been in Nashville.
Re: It's a disgrace Carthage never honored Jim on the 50th
I attended the opening of the Jim Reeves exhibit in Carthage back whenever that was. There were a couple things that stood out from that. Unfortunately, one was the arrogance of Tommie Ritter Smith. When she talked, prior to turning the proceedings over to Mr. Newberry, she acted like she wanted to be anywhere but there. Mr. Newberry then made a little speech and his wife cut the ribbon to the room that contained the exhibit.
Re: It's a disgrace Carthage never honored Jim on the 50th
If, as Shakespeare maintained, brevity is the soul of wit, then the pithy epitaph on Jim Reeves's grave outside Carthage is just about the wittiest in the world: Producer, God. Perfection. And the most accurate, too. Alas, were the same true about the town itself. The 'street' named in 'honour' of Gentleman Jim is an insult. Tucked in as it is and thoughtfully out of sight at the rear of the Texas Music Hall of Fame it more resembles a car park. And a car park one would be reluctant to abandon even a rusty old past-its-sell-by-date automobile in. Everything Larry wrote about Carthage's cold shouldering of its greatest son chimed with my own experiences. Even unto the brief encounter I had with two delightful teenage girls behind the counter of a shop shortly after I had disembarked from a Greyhound bus there a couple of years ago. I enquired as to the location of GJR's memorial as much to get an earful of the spoken Reeves-like musical cadence as to elicit some information. While I got the first, and then some !, alas, no such luck with the second part. 'Who did y'all say again?' 'Oh, that must the guy on the horse outside the museum !'. While the younger generation's take on history is usually restricted to what happened the week before last, but, still. It was an ominous start. And things only went downhill after that. While Tex Ritter's version of the song which contains one of the great rhymes of all times: 'He made a vow while in state prison/ Vowed it was my life or his'un' is a classic, nonetheless it is but a molehill in musical terms beside the mountain of Jim Reeves's achievement. In the High Noon shoot out in Hadleyville aka Carthage there can be only one winner, as long as the status quo remains. And Gentleman Jim will remain forsaken by those who ought to cherish him the most. Moving on and up to Nashville once again I found nothing there which would run counter to what Larry found there more recently, with one exception. I hadn't been in Music City, USA since 1979 and how the musical culture had declined. On that first occasion I had managed to blag myself in to the dressing room area of Opryland. Where my accompanying security guard knocked on a particular door which was opened my none other than Roy Acuff himself. Who gave me one of those gracious greetings for which the South is renowned, even though he didn't know me from Adam. It may be that he was as taken with my Irish accent (which I was careful enough to Blarney up) as I had been with with Southern intonations. Abandoning his band briefly in the dressing room where they were tuning up their instruments- fiddles and guitars, he then escorted me to the old pews at the rear of the new Opyrland stage which had been transferred there as a gesture towards the continuity of the tradition. They are reserved for VIPs, a disignation from which I did not demur, being in something which closely resembled Hillbilly Heaven at the time. On my second visit to Nashville,Tn all had changed, changed utterly. Without the attendant birth of a terrible beauty. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the foyer of the Ryman Auditorium where Roy Acuff is now a bronze statue, his pioneering spirit having crossed to the Great Over Yonder many years ago. The streets and studios of Music City are now populated with bronzed, statuesque 'stars' who are all stetson and no steer. As I viewed the pavement signpost outside Tootsie's Bar on Broadway which contained a tableau of all the greats in years of yore I noticed there was one omission, too glaring to merit a mention. Except to say he was the greatest of them all. This was ominous, as I headed out to the RCA studio on Music Row. To my pleasant surprise the youthful (!) guide was as informed as he was appreciative of the legacy of Gentleman Jim. All may not be lost, after all ! Wait along, wait along. Festive blessings to one and all. Keep up the great work, Larry.
Re: It's a disgrace Carthage never honored Jim on the 50th
I wish Mary had at least had a duplicate statue like the one at his gravesite made for placement in front of studio B in Nashville,Tenn.Then Jim would probably be better remembered today.Anita L. Cooper
Re: It's a disgrace Carthage never honored Jim on the 50th
Totally agree with all of the above however why don't we move to a virtual museum for jr where location is irrelevant . Here dusty arteefacts are reached by 3d mock ups. E.g. It would be neat to do a virtual tour of Nashville in JR's time or walk around studio b or JR's house all virtually, look at pictures on the walls etc - would by pass all the hoarders and dusty museums where few can visit. The technology is widely available.
Re: It's a disgrace Carthage never honored Jim on the 50th
Obviously that particular organisation is well worth a miss,it would be like having a Tennessee Hall of Fame without Elvis Presley in it,can't understand how Tex could possibly be 'bigger' than Jim,just doesn't make sense,even Buddy Holly who only recorded for a handful of years made more of a worldwide impact!
on December 15, 2014, 6:51 pm, in reply to "