2023 Living Treasures Reception

Saturday, January 28, 1-3 p.m.
Oldham County History Center 

Rob Morris Chapel Education Bldg. 

207 West Jefferson 

The Oldham County History Center and The Oldham Era will honor the 2020-2022  participants of the Living Treasures Oral History Program. This program is made up of special individuals within the community who provide a link to the past through their oral histories, housed at the History Center. Each year History Center Executive Director, Dr. Nancy Stearns Theiss, interviews and transcribes the life stories of eleven individuals who are honored the following January, along with past Living Treasures. Their stories and pictures are featured once a month in The Oldham Era. Special portraits of each recipient are made by photographers Peter Campbell and Bobbi Nelson.

A reception to honor the Living Treasures will be held on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023 at 1 p.m. in the Rob Morris Educational Building at the Oldham County History Center, located at 207 W. Jefferson St. in La Grange. A special Kentucky Humanities Council Chautauqua program is featured as a part of the reception. This year’s program is about Country Musician and Comic, Grandpa Jones (1913-1998).

Louis Marshall Jones, better known as Grandpa, was the son of Henderson County sharecroppers. Jones, who had a repertoire of songs learned from his parents and the radio, won a talent contest that led to regular work on an Akron radio station. That launched a career that lasted more than 60 years. It was during tours with country music star Bradley Kincaid in the 1930s that Jones developed the Grandpa persona he used the rest of his life.

Jones wrote many of his most popular songs. Like many old-time musicians, he struggled during the rock-and-roll craze of the 1950s — he toured Canada and tried his hand at early television. Beginning in 1969, television brought Jones fame as a member of the original cast of “Hee Haw,” which showcased his skills as a vaudeville comic. Grandpa Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978. He never retired, suffering a fatal stroke after a performance at the Grand Ole Opry in 1998.

This program, which includes a cake and coffee reception, is free and open to the public, but reservations are suggested.

For more information or to make reservations, contact the Oldham County History Center at (502) 222-0826 or info@oldhamkyhistory.com.