Music - WJAT - Nancy Auditorium - Swainsboro GA - 1
by John Kirkland
Title
Music - WJAT - Nancy Auditorium - Swainsboro GA - 1
Artist
John Kirkland
Medium
Photograph - Digital
Description
The small town of Swainsboro, Georgia just use to be the home of the Pine Tree Festival until I met Michael Bright owner of the Music Memories Museum in Swainsboro. It was then I discover that Swainsboro was steeped in music history. In 1950, this sleepy little farming and logging town was introduced to music when Jack A. Thompson and his wife Nancy opened the WJAT radio station. Four years later after attending a gospel concert in a near by county they built the Nancy Auditorium to be used for gospel sings and other local events. In 1957, Grand Ole Opry star, Webb Pierce and the General Manager of the Grand Ole Opry, Jim Denny purchased the auditorium and radio station. The rest is history. Hundreds of famous singers and bands performed in Swainsboro during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Country stars like Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs and others like Jerry Lee Lewis, JP Richardson, The Kinks, Three Dog Night, Tony Orlando & Dawn, The Tams, the Swinging Medallions and others, all brought a little music history to a small town that I once only knew as the home of the Pine Tree Festival.
Featured in the following FAA groups:
USA Photographers
Georgia
Uploaded
September 7th, 2023
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