Franklin County as a whole is really my home, ... I was born in Benton and attended grade schools in Benton, Rend City, and up at the old Mt. Pleasant school house. When I went to school in Rend City it was a bustling little mining town. My grandfather, Herman Bradford was a hoisting engineer at the mine there until the mine closed.

216

Ruth and I knew we would come back to live here some day, ... When my eyes got too bad for me to drive in 1988, and my not being able to see made it harder to perform on a regular basis, we decided it was time to come home. I pulled in my horns and we moved up here because of my eye condition. I didn't exactly retire; I'm still a member of the Opry and still do an occasional concert now and then.

194

All my friends were in the Army. Everyone wanted to do their part, and I had thought I could pull it off without anyone realizing I had a problem seeing in the dark, ... but it wasn't meant to be.

185

I had excellent daytime vision and was in great physical condition, having played varsity football at Valier High School, ... Things went along just fine until one day during my training. I accidentally bumped into a second lieutenant, which was not the thing to do.

174

He was this big kid, ... who didn't show up on time, which really frustrated Jimmy. He asked me if I would be willing to play on the show, because he was letting Clark go. Years earlier, I had helped Jimmy get into a USO tour I was doing with Connie B. Gay, a disc jockey friend of mine at WARL radio out of Arlington, Va.

107

Ruth did an excellent job bringing up our kids. I say that because she did the lion's share of raising them. They were all great kids, never sassed us, and they've turned out real good. I sometimes joke that it's a good thing we didn't have a fourth child or that one might have been a maverick.

95

A bunch of us who are members get together every year at Eddie Pennington's Campground, in Crofton, Kentucky. We call it the Goat Ropin' Festival. It began 10 years ago on my 70th birthday, and this year they plan to celebrate my turning eighty. I've been blessed with good friends.

68