John
Luther Jones was born March 14, 1863. During his boyhood he lived in Cayce,
Kentucky where he ended up garnering the nickname “Casey”. From his early
years, he was fascinated with the railroad, following his dreams and eventually
became a full-fledged engineer, earning the reputation for always reaching his
destination at the scheduled time. On April 29, he commanded his train from
Canton to Memphis. The engineer for the return trip did not show up for his
assignment, and Casey Jones was asked to make the return run to Canton in his
absence, despite having just completed a run. By the time they left Canton for
the return trip, they were already 95 minutes behind schedule due to the
delays. However, Jones believed with the help of the notorious Cannonball
Express engine he could make up that time.
Casey
Jones set out and ran the engine at breakneck speed, and by the time he reached
Goodman and had only 25 miles left, he was only 5 minutes behind schedule,
certain he could make that up. Unknown to Jones, there had been a derailment in
Vaughn leaving some cars still on the main track. As they worked to remove the
cars, the crew failed to put up the customary warning signals alerting that the
main line was not open. As Jones sped at 75 MPH through a long left hand curve
into Vaughn, his longer view of the rail was blocked. Without the warning, it
was already too late when he spotted the cars on the main line. He slammed on
all the breaking power he could must, while yelling at his fireman, Simm Webb,
to jump from the engine, which he did. Jones managed to bring the train from
over 75 MPH down to an estimated 35 MPH before colliding with the caboose that
remained on the track. While the impact was deafening, his heroics in reducing
the speed resulting in nobody on the train being killed, except of course
himself. Even Simm Webb survived with minor injuries.
It turned
out that if not for chance, the legend of Casey Jones would have become
obscure. Train collisions were common in those days before technology, but fortunately
for all, an engine wiper, Wallace Saunders who was a personal friend of Casey,
wrote a ballad called The Ballad of Casey Jones, in which he sang of the events
of that fateful morning of April 30, 1900. That ballad served to keep the
legend alive. We toured Jones’ Jackson Tennessee home which was fun. The museum
set up to honor this legend had all kinds of personal items, even the pocket
watch that he used to make sure he was always on time. Time cards, checks,
route schedules, and all kinds of memorabilia made the visit interesting,
particularly the video that filled in all the gaps in my recollection of this
childhood memory.
On our
way into Jackson, we stumbled on the ranch of Loretta Lynn. The legendary
singer has turned her childhood home and her plantation home into tourist
attractions scheduling tours throughout each day. She also has turned most of
her ranch into an event venue and RV park. When we were there to tour her
homes, we found out that the coming weekend would see a 4 day off road vehicle
and motocross event, and what was being set up was quite elaborate.
We toured
the home where she grew up as a child. Her childhood home built in Butcher
Hollow Kentucky has been moved to the Hurricane Mills Tennessee. We also toured
her plantation home where she lived during most of her recording career. She
still lives on the ranch – in a comfortable but much smaller home behind the
plantation home where the tours are held. She will occasionally venture forth
to mingle with a tour group, but we were not afforded that luxury during our
visit.
The Coal
Miner’s Daughter museum has a lot to offer. Hundreds of artifacts from her
original tour bus, some favorite autos, musical instruments, recording
paraphernalia, and all kinds of personal items are there. We had a great time
touring the museum and getting to know a little about Loretta Lynn, The First
Lady of Country Music.
We were
not as familiar with her relationship with Conway Twitty. Early in her career,
she teamed up with Twitty to create the heavy he/she country duo and the
chemistry was historic. Loretta and Conway were at the pinnacle of the country
charts, and everything they did was golden. Unfortunately, Conway died at the
young age of 59 from an aneurism. He had recently released his album “Final
Touches” fittingly named. His famed home of Twitty City became a faith based
recording studio dedicated to its founder.
Our last
visit in Jackson was a quirky little attraction, the International Rockabilly
Hall of Fame. As it turns out, it is a small auditorium sized building with a
collection of memorabilia of the likes of Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Johnny
Cash and others who came out of this neck of the woods. 78 year old Henry
Harrison is the curator, and he knew most of the entertainers of this genre
personally, and it’s his passion and energy that has created the museum.
While
there is not a lot on display, its Henry’s stories that are the gems you will
enjoy. The first thing he did was show us a set of drums donated to the Museum
by W S “Fluke” Holland. Fluke was the main drummer for Carl Perkins, and played
drums on 1955 Sun Records recording of Blue Suede Shoes. Holland played with
many of the Rockabilly artists during that time, including the King, but was
best known as being the principle drummer for Johnny Cash when he toured
extensively. Henry had each one of us sit behind Holland’s actual drum set and
play a standard drum riff.
We also
used an actual set of drum sticks that were owned and used by Fluke. While the
permanent marker that he used to autograph the sticks is very faint, you can
still make out the W S Holland signature on the sticks. Playing on Fluke’s
actual drum set with his actual sticks was a lot of fun, and Henry brought the
setting to life with his stories.
We walked
around and saw all of the memorabilia there was to see, listening all the time
to Henry’s stories. We saw gold records of Cash, Perkins, Elvis and other
artists. Cancelled checks signed by the King, invoices made out to the King,
time records, all kinds of stuff that was really fun to see.
The last
exhibit was one personal to Henry – it turns out that when younger, Henry was a
boxer. He was a welterweight, and actually held the Golden Gloves championship.
If you get the chance, do not pass up the International Rockabilly Hall of
Fame. While the exhibits are light, Henry is not, and his personal tour is to
die for!
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