If there is anything I know for sure it is this, you are who you hang out with. This is one reason why I love middle Tennessee. You can’t help but befriend successful and talented people every where you turn. This area of the country is brimming with countless men and women gifted in every background and industry, especially music, and especially country music.
The first celebrity I can remember encountering from my hometown was the country music artist, Carl Smith. In fact, he and his family lived just down the road, off Berry's Chapel, on the prettiest piece of property that is now Lynnwood Downs. As kids we would ride our bikes back to Carl Smith‘s ranch and up "Carl Smith Hill" to make for ourselves a cool breeze on a hot summer‘s day. Many, many years have passed and the Smith’s have long since moved, but we still call it "Carl Smith Hill."
Most people probably never heard of Carl Smith unless they were listening very carefully to Reese Witherspoon’s dialogue in the 2005 movie Walk the Line. Carl Smith was June Carter Cash’s first husband from around 1952-57. He was also one of the country’s most successful male artists during the 50s, with 30 Top 10 hits, mostly with Columbia Records, and 5 #1 singles. After his marriage to June Carter ended, Mr. Smith married another country music artist Goldie Hill.
I knew the Smith children because we rode the bus together to Grassland Elementary. Pokie Reed was the bus driver on #57, and the route went as far as the Smith’s ranch to pick up Lori Lynn, a few years older than me, and Dean, a few year’s younger. They also have an older brother, Carl Jr., and a half-sister named Rebecca Smith who now goes by Carlene Carter and is also a successful artist.
Several years ago the Smith’s sold their ranch and moved further out in the county for reasons unknown to me. I can only imagine it had something to do with the ever encroaching urban sprawl. But for several years we were proud to be neighbors with and a little star-struck by “Mister Country.”
And even though she deserves her own post on this blog, I must mention Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon is a native of middle Tennessee, graduating from Nashville’s Harpeth Hall Academy in 1994. In 2006 she was awarded the Best Actress Academy Award for her role as June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash story Walk the Line.
Not to overlook Carl Smith's awards, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2003.
January 17, 2010... Country Music Hall of Fame member, beloved father, neighbor, friend, Carl Smith was one of the genre's most successful singers and entertainers during the 1950's. He died Saturday, Jan. 16, at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 82.
