Sometime back in the 1920s, Hassie Gresham was walking through the halls of the old Central High School when she heard someone singing outside. The venerable and longest serving principal of the school asked a nearby student who it was. The student replied, “Roy Acuff,” and Ms. Gresham asked that he be fetched directly.

Acuff wasn’t unknown to trouble here and there in his youth, so he reported to the principal’s office filled with dread. Gresham informed him that he would be leading Chapel in the auditorium the following morning. He protested he would fall over from the jitters. She responded, “son, you can lean on me.”

And with that, the future of King of Country Music was introduced to the stage at what is now Gresham Middle School. Turned out, he enjoyed singing and leading Chapel in the mornings, but developed there the habit of rocking back forth on his feet to deal with his profound stage fright.

Roy Acuff in his baseball uniform, from the Central Sequoyah.

Acuff, along with 72 classmates, graduated from Central on May 21, 1925. This evening, Central is honoring his legacy with a Centennial Graduation performance in the school’s auditorium. Doors and exhibits open at 5 PM with the concert, featuring Central’s concert band and Bobcat Company choir, starting at 6 PM. Special guests include local musicians Sarah Pirkle, Milly Cavender and Roger Wallace. The concert is free, but donations are appreciated.

Born in Maynardville to a prominent Union County family, Acuff moved to Fountain City at the age of 16. For his high school days, though he was always musically inclined, his primary interest was athletics. He was a three-sport star for the Bobcats in football, basketball, and baseball. In addition to leading singing during Chapel, he performed in every play the school put on and was part of the publications staff for the Sequoyah, then the name for the school annual.

Roy Acuff in his basketball uniform, from the Central Sequoyah.

It should be noted that Acuff was born in September 1903 but graduated high school in May 1925, just a few months shy of his 22nd birthday. It wasn’t that unusual in that era, when the state of Tennessee was working hard just to get kids to attend school at all. He graduated, dammit. His prowess in sports earned him a scholarship offer from Carson-Newman University, but he turned it down. His dream was to play baseball for the New York Yankees. Music was still on the backburner.

In the late 1920s, he was listed in the City Directory as a caller for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad as well as a machinist for Southern. He played baseball for the L&N team, still hoping for that opportunity to play at the highest level of the sport. In July 1929, a near-incident changed the trajectory of his life forever. During a game at Caswell Park on an excessively hot and humid day, Acuff dropped to the ground once, twice, thrice. On the third occasion he did not get back up, felled by sunstroke.

It took Acuff two years to recover, but during that time he honed his fiddling and singing skills. Touring with a medicine show, forming the Crazy Tennesseans, performing on WROL and WNOX radio stations, Great Speckled Bird and Wabash Cannonball were all ahead of him. In 1938, he and the Crazy Tennesseans left Knoxville behind and lit out for Nashville to audition for the Grand Ole Opry. They received a contract and their name was changed to The Smoky Mountain Boys. The rest is history.

Acuff became the first living inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1962.

Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.

Sources: Fountain City: People Who Made a Difference by Dr. J.C. (Jim) Tumblin, The Knoxville Journal digital archives

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