Articles & Stories
Part One Of Two Parts:
Lily Mae Ledford Of Powell County
Led All-Girl String Band
The Coon Creek Girls Were Featured Regularly For 18 Years
On The "Renfro Valley Barn Dance" Radio Program
Editor's Note: In the April 2005 issue, page 29, of The Kentucky Explorer was a photo of the Coon Creek Girls submitted by James Madden of Hazard, Kentucky. Since the photo was published The Explorer has received numerous inquiries regarding the Coon Creek Girls who were from the Powell County area. Following is an article written by John Lilly about these famous ladies who performed in 1939 at the White House for FDR and were featured at Renfro Valley for many years. Mr. Lilly is an old-time musician and songwriter, currently living in Charleston, West Virginia. He is the editor of the book Mountains of Music: West Virginia Traditional Music From Goldenseal published by the University of Illinois Press, and since 1997 he has served as editor of Goldenseal magazine, a quarterly folklife journal published by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.
By John Lilly
On
the evening of June 8, 1939, limousines began to
deliver the cream of Washington, D. C., society to the
East Room of the White House. President and First Lady, Franklin
and Eleanor Roosevelt, were entertaining King George VI and Queen
Elizabeth of England and had arranged a command performance in
their honor. Chandeliers sparkled, jewelry glistened, and the
royal guests sat in the front row with their hosts. Music for
the evening was provided by the finest representatives of American
culture, including opera tenor Lawrence Tibbett, classical musician
Marion Anderson, the large and popular Kate Smith, and Alan Lomax
singing Western songs. For many, the highlight of the evening
was a performance by four energetic young women from the Ohio
Valley called the Coon Creek Girls, who would play traditional
string band music and accompany Bascom Lunsford's square dance
group from North Carolina.
As their performance time gradually approached, the Coon Creek
Girls readied themselves in a warm-up area. They had beautiful
new dresses to wear; Lily May in white, Rosie in pink, lavender
for Violet, and Daisy dressed in gold and white; all trimmed
in lace and ribbons. After an impromptu jam session with fiddling
Vice-President Jack Nance Garner, several miles of nervous pacing,
and just the right amount of rehearsal, it was time for the Coon
Creek Girls to go on. Rosie tucked a $20 bill in her garter belt
for safe keeping, and they bounded onto the stage with all the
fire and enthusiasm of an old-time Kentucky barn dance. How Many
Biscuits Can You Eat? was their first number that night, featuring
Lily May Ledford's outstanding five-string banjo, sister Rosie
on guitar, Violet Koehler on mandolin, and Daisy Lange on bass;
with all four sharing the comical verses. They knew this piece
was a favorite of Mr. Roosevelt and had performed it countless
times back home in Kentucky and Ohio. Another FDR favorite, Get
Along Miss Cindy was planned, as well as an English ballad, The
Soldier And The Lady, in honor of the royal couple. Yet, there
was a nervousness for them in this strange situation, singing
about ham and biscuits to the caviar crowd, with the leaders
of the Western World sitting one broken string's length away.
The
Coon Creek Girls. L-R: Susie Ledford, Lily May Ledford, and Rosie
Ledford Foley. These sisters were the famous Coon Creek Girls
from the Powell County area who performed in 1939 at the White
House for FDR. For many years they were featured at Renfro Valley.
They disbanded in 1957. (Photo courtesy of James Madden, P.
O. Box 413, Hazard, KY 41702.)
Lily
May stole a glance out of the corner of her eye. The Roosevelts
were smiling. Rosie's $20 bill had slipped from her garter belt
and down the front of her hose, where it stuck. The Queen was
smiling, but the King looked dour and deadpan. They played and
sang their hearts out. Then, one at a time, their hearts were
put at ease as they glanced to the floor and saw George VI quietly
tapping his royal foot in time to the music. They knew they had
him.
The tremendous success of the Coon Creek Girls in their 1939
White House appearance was a testimony to their stature as professional
entertainers and renewed evidence of the universal appeal of
their traditional mountain music repertoire. In fact, the story
of the Coon Creek Girls is a study in the commercial application
of old-time music and how, at least in their case, large audiences
from diverse backgrounds roundly embraced the music and songs
from way back up in the hills when presented with enthusiasm,
sincerity, professionalism, and a healthy sense of humor.
It is also the story of several pioneering young women and the
visionary gentleman who brought them together and kept them busy:
John Lair.
Born in 1894 in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, John Lair was deeply
affected by the barn raisings, tent meetings, singing bees, play-parties,
circuit riders, pie suppers, and square dances which made up
the unique way of life enjoyed by people in that remote and picturesque
part of Kentucky. As the 20th century came to the hills, Lair
was keenly aware of the changes around him and noted the apparent
passing of important traditions with no small regret. Nonetheless,
he pursued his education, joined the Army, and began to see the
world outside of his native valley.
A series of career changes landed Lair in Chicago where he was
hired as music librarian for WLS radio. From this position he
began to exert influence on the programming content of the shows
which, in the early 1930s, consisted of many hours a day of live
music. He soon became talent manager and began recruiting performers
from his native Kentucky to come to Chicago, eventually assembling
an air staff including Karl and Harty, Bradley Kincaid, Slim
Miller, Red Foley, and many others. Chicago's gain, however,
was Kentucky's loss. On a holiday visit back home to the hills
in 1936, John Lair heard the hills fall silent; the traditional
culture he had loved so well was all but gone, owing to the passage
of time and the luring away of the remaining talent by big city
radio stations.
He realized his hand in this process and began devising a plan
to reverse it. He would build a community in "the valley
where time stands still," preserving mountain culture for
future generations. It would include authentic buildings, native
people, and, as one might guess, a radio show featuring traditional
music. He wrote a song at this time called Take Me Back To Renfro
Valley which became his theme as he returned to Chicago as a
man with a mission.
Two counties away and further up into the hills than John Lair's
still-imaginary Renfro Valley was the Powell County home of the
Ledford family. Real country people who sharecropped corn and
sorghum cane on the steep hillsides and sparse bottomland near
Red River, they caught ground hogs, squirrels, rabbits, and fish,
and gathered ginseng and yellow root to scrape together sustenance
for a family of 11 children and two hard-working parents. They
lived in two rooms plus a lean-to kitchen. Flour sacks were used
for underwear. Skunk, possum, and occasional wildcat hides were
traded for shoes. Medicines were made from wild roots and herbs.
The Ledfords were living the life that John Lair dreamed about.
An integral part of that life was the homemade music which they
shared when there was enough time. Papa Daw White Ledford was
a multi-talented and versatile individual who played fiddle,
banjo, and guitar. Mother Stella May Ledford worked and rocked
her babies to sleep singing old ballads and religious songs.
Several of these babies grew up profoundly influenced by this
music. Lily May Ledford, born in 1917, was the most musically
ambitious child and eventually mastered fiddle, banjo, guitar,
and bass; as well as being blessed with a strong, deep singing
voice. Her younger brother, Coyen, became an accomplished fiddler,
and older sister, Rosie, took naturally to the guitar and sang
many of the old songs. They learned fiddle tunes from their father
like Old Joe Clark, Sourwood Mountain, Cripple Creek, and John
Hardy, and songs from their mother such as Pretty Polly, The
Soldier And The Lady, and The Thorny Desert. Through neighbors
they also became exposed to recordings and radio performances
by the Carter Family, Riley Puckett, the Skillet Lickers, the
Delmore Brothers, and Jimmie Rodgers and set about learning songs
and tunes from them as well.
Calling themselves the "Red River Ramblers," the three
Ledford children, together with neighbor boy, Morgan Skidmore,
began to perform locally, and were called on more and more to
play for events outside their valley, eventually winning contests
and receiving offers from as far away as Rochester, Indiana.
It was there, in 1935, that they won a contest which put them
in touch with John Lair and WLS in Chicago. Unfortunately, for
the rest of the Red River Ramblers, Mr. Lair was only interested
in Lily May. In 1936 she went to Chicago as a staff musician
for WLS, while the rest of the band stayed back home in Kentucky.
Lily May Ledford was a big hit in Chicago. A tall 19-year-old
with a heavy accent, she impressed the audience and staff with
her authenticity and natural flair for showmanship. All this
while she was under the careful guidance of Mr. Lair, who selected
the banjo as her main instrument (Lily May preferred the fiddle),
dressed her in calico, and urged her to keep it country. Lily
May fit in well and learned volumes from Red Foley, Patsy Montana,
the Girls of the Golden West (Dolly and Millie Good from Cincinnati),
Lula Belle and Scotty Wiseman, and the other seasoned professionals
on WLS.
At the same time she was instructed by John Lair not to sign
any papers there, because he had other plans for her. He told
her about his intention to build a barn dance and historical
community in Kentucky and about his plan to have an all-female
string band, of which Lily May would be an essential part. Lily
May had signed a five-year management contract with Lair and
was happy to go along with whatever he suggested. She was also
happy when, in 1937, her older sister, Rosie, came to join her
in Chicago, easing some of her homesickness and reviving some
of the musical material which they had played back home. Later
that year Lair consolidated his recruits and led an exodus away
from WLS in Chicago, relocating his entire congregation in Cincinnati,
where he would begin broadcasting the Renfro Valley Barn Dance
program while awaiting completion of the final facility 130 miles
south in Kentucky. Arriving in Ohio, Lily May and Rosie were
introduced to the rest of their "all-girl" string band,
Esther Koehler and Evelyn Lange.
Evelyn was from North Star, Ohio, 100 miles north of Cincinnati
and the home of Annie Oakley. She was inspired by a musical uncle
when she was six years old, and eventually taught herself to
play fiddle by following her mother's harmonica playing. The
first tunes she remembers learning this way were Redwing and
The Prisoner's Song. Also a gifted mandolin and guitar player,
she won a talent contest in Union City, Indiana, and, like Lily
May, was introduced to John Lair and WLS. As a contest winner
she performed only once on WLS but returned to Ohio with John
Lair's assurance that she, too, would be part of Renfro Valley
and the "all girl" stringband. Esther Koehler was from
Wisconsin, played mandolin, bass, and guitar, and, like the others,
reportedly became acquainted with John Lair through winning a
talent contest.
Lily May, Rosie, Evelyn, and Esther immediately set about the
work of becoming a band. Evelyn became "Daisy" and
Esther was renamed "Violet." Pooling their prodigious
musical resources they decided on primary instrumentation consisting
of Lily May on banjo and fiddle, Rosie on guitar, Violet (Esther)
on mandolin. Although she was already accomplished on fiddle,
guitar, and mandolin, Daisy (Evelyn) agreed to learn the bass
in the two weeks they had until their first broadcast. All the
women sang in varying degrees, and they began working up material,
drawing mostly from the rich traditional repertoire which Lily
May and Rosie brought with them from their childhood.
Still in their teens and early 20s, these talented and ambitious
young women worked tirelessly, and apparently with great enjoyment,
to create a sound that was true to the mountain heritage they
represented, yet lively, clean, and professional in a way which
would appeal to urban and rural audiences alike. John Lair had
chosen them well, and they delivered to him an act which surely
exceeded his highest expectations. Having already opted for "flower
names," the girls decided on a theme song of You're A Flower
That Is Blooming In The Wildwood and wished to name the group
the "Wildwood Flowers." John Lair thought the name
"Coon Creek Girls" sounded more country, so the Coon
Creek Girls is what they became.
The Renfro Valley Barn Dance began over WLW in Cincinnati on
October 9, 1937, featuring mostly ex-patriot performers from
WLS in Chicago: Red Foley, Slim Miller, the Girls of the Golden
West, and Lily May Ledford, now with the Coon Creek Girls. Eventually
moving to WCKY and then to an auditorium in Dayton, Ohio, Lair
attempted to keep his cast fed and working while he struggled
to complete construction on the Renfro Valley facility in Kentucky.
The Coon Creek Girls, together with other staff musicians, would
travel out and perform to large, enthusiastic, live audiences
at theaters and schoolhouses throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana,
while always making it back in time for their radio commitments.
Lily May, in her autobiography, Coon Creek Girl, remembered these
days with great relish:
"We were writing songs at this point. We did vocal duets,
trios, and even quartets, with me singing bass. We did fiddle
and mandolin duets with Violet and Daisy. Violet would do songs
and poems and old ballads. I played banjo. Rosie would sing tenor
and do an occasional Jimmie Rodgers solo, yodeling her best.
I had the best rollicking guitar backup behind my banjo breakdowns
I've ever had. What a good time we had on stage, playing mostly
fast pieces, jumping up and down, sometimes ruining some of our
songs by laughing at each other. Sis, when carried away by a
fast fiddle tune, would let out a yell so high pitched that it
sounded like a whistle. Sometimes, when playing at an outdoor
event, fair or picnic, we would go barefooted. We were so happy
back then. Daisy and Sis, being good fighters, would make short
work of anybody in the more polished groups who would tease or
torment us. We all made short work of the 'wolves' as they were
called, who tried to follow us home or get us in their cars."
This article will continue in the September 2005 issue.