Nashville Famous Graves and Cemeteries continued from this page.

Nashville area is the final resting place for many famous  musicians as well as local prominent people. Grave photos, bio’s and the most helpful GPS location to Nashville’s famous graves. This page highlights many of them but for a more comphrensive website for grave hunting from across the country visit my website famousgravehunter.com. 

All the photos are by Tabitha Hawk in Nashville and biographies are from Find a Grave which is an excellent resource for those who are into grave hunting. 

Minnie Pearl  ORIGINAL NAME Sara Ophelia Colley Cannon

Country Music Commedienne. Born in Centerville, Tennessee, her had debutante balls and college in mind for their daughter, who’d been stage-struck with a love for vaudeville and drama since an early age. While she was indeed a college graduate, that didn’t stop her from sneaking into tent shows, which was against her parents wishes. While producing an amateur musical comedy in Baileyton, Alabama. around 1936, she met a young mountain woman from whom she based her famed and beloved character, Miss. Minnie Pearl, on. Her first performance onstage as Minnie Pearl was in 1939 in Aiken, South Carolina, but it was her introduction to the audience of the world famous Grand Ole Opry in 1940 at age 28 that catapulted her to stardom through live performances, radio and eventually television. For over 50 years, she entertained the music world with Minnie’s tales of her fictional hometown, Grinders Switch, Tennessee, stepping onstage proclaiming “Howdeee! I’m just so proud to be here” in her straw hat adorned with flowers and a $1.98 price tag. In reality, she was known as a gracious lady of refinement, hospitality and down to earth charm, living down the street from the Tennessee Governors Mansion and known as a competitive tennis player at the local country club. Married to Henry Cannon for over 50 years, she went on to continue her performances on the Opry, her home base, but also entertained throughout the world for charitable causes and won numerous awards for her numerous contributions to humanity. In 1975, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In the early 1990s a series of strokes forced her to retire from the stage, but the industry and its fans did not forget their beloved Minnie Pearl. A breast cancer survivor and spokeswoman since 1985, her cancer later returned, claiming her life on March 4, 1996, at her Nashville Home. A museum erected outside of the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee, tells the story of one of America’s most beloved and remembered entertainers.

Bio by: 602

Grave Location

Marion “Lady Marion” Worth

Singer. Born Mary Ann Ward, she began her professional career singing on the radio in Dallas, Texas. She later became one of the first female singers to break the country music tradition of “male only” lead vocalists and was one of the first country artists to perform at Carnegie Hall. She was also a member of the Grand Ole Opry and performed there regularly from 1963 until retiring in 1980. She enjoyed her biggest success in 1960 when two of her songs reached the top ten on the country charts, “That’s My Kind Of Love” peaked at #5 while “I Think I Know” reached #7. Her other country hits included, “Are You Willing, Willie”, “Crazy Arms”, and “Shake Me I Rattle (Squeeze Me I Cry)” which also crossed over to the pop charts, reaching number 42 in 1963. Cause of Death: Emphysema.

Bio by: Decal

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Donna Summer

Vocalist. Nicknamed the “Queen of Disco”, she was a major figure of the genre’s popularity as her songs echoed throughout nightclubs during the mid 1970s to early 1980s earning her multiple Grammy Awards and nominations. Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines, in Boston on New Year’s Eve 1948, her father was a butcher her mother was a school teacher, she loved to sing as a child and experienced her first opportunity to perform in front of an audience by accident when she filled in for an absentee singer at her church when she was ten years old. While attending high school, she participated in staged musicals and following graduation she landed a role in the production of “Hair” which was performing in Germany. She remained in Europe and appeared in several more musicals, among them “Godspell” and “Porgy and Bess”, prior to launching her recording career as a backup singer and in 1974, she released her first solo album “Lady of the Night”. This was followed with “Love to Love You Baby” (1975) and the sexually-provocative single of the same title earned her gold record status and a number 2 placing on the US Charts securing her as a commercial artist. During this period, she married German actor Helmut Sommer (married in 1973 and divorced two years later) and changed the spelling of her last name to Summer. “I Feel Love”, the single from her album “I Remember Yesterday” became her second gold record. What followed was a string of number one hits including gold and platinum records among them “McArthur Park” (1978), “Last Dance” (1978), “Heaven Knows” (1979), “Hot Stuff” (1979), “Bad Girls” (1979), “Dim All The Lights” (1979), “No More Tears” (1979, a duet with Barbra Streisand), “On the Radio” (1980), “The Wanderer” (1980) and “She Works Hard For the Money” (1983). Her final Top-Ten hit would be “This Time I Know It’s For Real” (1989). Success did not come without controversy for her and during the 1980s she allegedly made remarks about gays and AIDS which had a negative affect on her career. In addition, she revealed that she had long suffered from severe depression. She died following a year- long battle with lung cancer. She left an indelible impression on the music industry and it would be difficult to think of Disco without remembering Donna Summer. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

Bio by: C.S.

Grave Location

Teddy Wilburn

Country Music Singer. He will be remembered, as half of one the most popular country music duos of all time; his brother Doyle was the other half. At the beginning their career on Christmas Eve 1937 with two older brothers, Leslie and Lester and a sister, Geraldine, the children were singing on street corners for tips. Their father Benjamin Wilburn, a disable World War I veteran, purchased from Sears Roebuck a guitar, mandolin and fiddle in hopes that his children might aid the family’s dire financial situation during the Great Depression by performing for the public. After six months of school and six months of singing for money, the Wilburn Family was discovered in 1940 by Roy Acuff who brought them to The Grand Ole Opry. The family became very popular on the Opry, but were forced to resign because of child labor laws. In the early 1940s Geraldine retired from the group when she married. In 1948 the four Wilburn boys were featured on KWKH’s “Louisiana Hayride.” After serving in the Korean Conflict, Doyle and Teddy, formed a duo joining the Opry in 1953. Their first hit, “Sparkling Brown Eyes,” which was performed with Webb Pierce, was on the national country music chart for 18 weeks in 1954 and reaching the #1 slot in the Top Five Hit. Seven more Top Ten Hits came in the 1950s, but it was in the 1960s when the brothers really hit their career peak with 18 charted hits, many of which became Top Ten Hits. They distinguished themselves with hits, “I’m So In Love With You,” “Go Away With Me,” “Mr. Love” and “Hey, Mr. Bluebird” (both with Ernest Tubb), “Which One Is to Blame,” “Somebody’s Back in Town,” “A Woman’s Intuition,” “Trouble’s Back in Town,” “Roll Muddy River,” “Tell Her So,” “It’s Another World,” “Somebody Before Me” and “Hurt Her Once for Me.” They hosted their own television show from 1963 to 1974. In 1957 they headed-up a very successful publishing company, Surefire Music, with their older brothers, and with steel guitarist, Don Helm, started a talent booking agency for up-and-coming singers. The Wilburn Brothers are credited for discovering Loretta Lynn, who performed and toured with the brothers. Also, they launched the singing careers of Patty Loveless, Sonny James, the Osborn Brothers and Jean Shepard. The brothers made their last, and their 30th, album together in 1978. The brothers were the only performer with a “Lifetime Recording Contract” with Decca Records. In 1967, the Wilburn Brothers were named Duet of the Music City News Awards, and in 1972 nominated for Vocal Group of the Year by the Country Music Association. The Wilburn Brothers performed regularly on the Grand Ole Opry until Doyle’s death in 1982 of lung cancer. Teddy continued as a solo artist on the Opry until his health declined then dying in 2003. In 2008, the Wilburn Brothers were inducted posthumously in the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame.

Bio by: Linda Davis

Grave Location

Edward S. Jones 

Civil War Union Army Officer. He was commissioned as Captain and commander of Company C, 3rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry on August 1, 1861. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on November 20, 1862, he eventually assumed command of the regiment, and led it until his enlistment expired and he was honorably mustered out on August 24, 1864. He had received a commission of Colonel, but it was not acted upon before he left the service.

Grave Location

Doyle Wilburn 

Country Music Singer. He will be remembered, as half of one the most popular country music duos of all time; his brother Teddy was the other half. At the beginning their career on Christmas Eve 1937 with two older brothers, Leslie and Lester and a sister, Geraldine, the children were singing on street corners for tips. Their father Benjamin Wilburn, a disable World War I veteran, purchased from Sears Roebuck a guitar, mandolin and fiddle in hopes that his children might aid the family’s dire financial situation during the Great Depression by performing for the public. After six months of school and six months of singing for money, the Wilburn Family was discovered in 1940 by Roy Acuff who brought them to The Grand Ole Opry. The family became very popular on the Opry, but were forced to resign because of child labor laws. In the early 1940s Geraldine retired from the group when she married. In 1948 the four Wilburn boys were featured on KWKH’s “Louisiana Hayride.” After serving in the Korean Conflict, Doyle and Teddy, formed a duo joining the Opry in 1953. Their first hit, “Sparkling Brown Eyes,” which was performed with Webb Pierce, was on the national country music chart for 18 weeks in 1954 and reaching the #1 slot in the Top Five Hit. Seven more Top Ten Hits came in the 1950s, but it was in the 1960s when the brothers really hit their career peak with 18 charted hits, many of which became Top Ten Hits. They distinguished themselves with hits, “I’m So In Love With You,” “Go Away With Me,” “Mr. Love” and “Hey, Mr. Bluebird” (both with Ernest Tubb), “Which One Is to Blame,” “Somebody’s Back in Town,” “A Woman’s Intuition,” “Trouble’s Back in Town,” “Roll Muddy River,” “Tell Her So,” “It’s Another World,” “Somebody Before Me” and “Hurt Her Once for Me.” They hosted their own television show from 1963 to 1974. In 1957 they headed-up a very successful publishing company, Surefire Music, with their older brothers, and with steel guitarist, Don Helm, started a talent booking agency for up-and-coming singers. The Wilburn Brothers are credited for discovering Loretta Lynn, who performed and toured with the brothers. Also, they launched the singing careers of Patty Loveless, Sonny James, the Osborn Brothers and Jean Shepard. The brothers made their last, and their 30th, album together in 1978. The brothers were the only performer with a “Lifetime Recording Contract” with Decca Records. In 1967, the Wilburn Brothers were named Duet of the Music City News Awards, and in 1972 nominated for Vocal Group of the Year by the Country Music Association. The Wilburn Brothers performed regularly on the Grand Ole Opry until Doyle’s death in 1982 of lung cancer. Teddy continued as a solo artist on the Opry until his health declined then dying in 2003. In 2008, the Wilburn Brothers were inducted posthumously in the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame.

Bio by: Linda Davis

Grave Location

Col James W. Lawless 

James P. “Raging Bull” Durham

Musician. Born in the hills of Kentucky, he was a retired Lieutenant Colonel US Air Force pilot and a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He was a better then average guitar picker and some of his military compositions such as “Gooney Bird”, “When the Mortars Come Rolling In” and “Crack Went the Rifle” are in the Library of Congress. Two of his albums “Songs for S.E.A.” and “In Country” were recorded on Flying Fish Records and produced especially for the soldiers serving in the field. He also appeared with artist Kris Kristofferson on PBS television’s “Austin City Limits” and at many military service shows.

Bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith

Grave Location  Section GG, Row 13, Site 43

Jim Hager

Musician, Entertainer. He, along with his twin brother Jon Hager, is best remembered as a regular cast performer on the television series “Hee Haw” that ran from 1969 until 1986, in which they were known for their rapid delivery of cornball one-liners. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he and his brother were adopted by Jack and Frances Hager, a Methodist minister and a schoolteacher. They began their musical career by singing in the church choir and as teenagers they formed a musical-comedy duo and sang on a Saturday morning WGN-TV series show. After graduating from Maine Township High School, Park Ridge, Illinois in 1959, he and his brother served in the US Army, performing at Officer’s Clubs and Non-commissioned Officer’s Clubs in the US and Europe. After leaving the military, he and his brother moved to California and performed as the Hager Twins, the Hager Brothers, or The Hagers at the Ledbetter’s Night Club in Los Angeles along with other famous acts, like The Carpenters, The New Christy Minstrels, John Denver, Steve Martin and Kenny Rogers. They also worked at Disneyland, where country singer Buck Owens saw them perform, signing them to contracts and brought them into “Hee Haw.” In addition to Owens, they served as opening acts for country singers Tex Ritter, Wynn Stewart, Billie Jo Spears and Lefty Frizzell. In 1969 they signed with Capitol Records and hit the country charts at #41 with “Gotta Get To Oklahoma (‘Cause California’s Gettin’ To Me)”. and also charted Merle Haggard’s “Silver Wings”, which was an on the B-Side of Haggard’s “Working Man Blues.” They recorded six albums, three for Capitol (“The Hagers” (1970), “Two Hagers are Better Than One” (1970), “Motherhood, Apple Pie and the Flag” (1971)), one for Barnaby Records (“Music on the Country Side” (1972)), and one for Elektra-Asylum Records (“The Hagers” (1974)). His television appearances include the TV-movie “Twin Detectives” with Lillian Gish, where he starred as Tony Thomas, and the original “The Bionic Woman” in which he played ‘Verm’ in the February 11, 1978 episode “Sanctuary Earth.” He and his brother continued to perform at comedy clubs from the 1980s. He also appeared in TV commercials and with Florence Henderson in “Country Kitchen” on The Nashville Network (TNN). He died in Nashville, Tennessee of an apparent heart attack at the age of 66.

Bio by: William Bjornstad

Grave Location Section DD, Row 10, Site 15

Johnson Kelly Duncan 

Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. He was born in York, Pennsylvania. He graduated 5th in the West Point class of 1849. He then served against the Seminoles in Florida, and explored possible railroad routes in the Northwest. He left the United States Army in 1855 to supervise government construction in New Orleans. By 1861 he considered himself a Louisianian and sided with the South when the Civil War began. His first assignment was as a Colonel of Artillery defending Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans. He was commissioned a Brigadier General on January 7, 1862, and had about 500 men and 80 guns at his disposal when Union Captain David G. Farragut brought up his fleet and mortar boats to attack the forts. On the first day of firing, April 18, 1862, Farragut’s mortars lobbed close to 3000 rounds at Fort Jackson in a 10-hour bombardment. He and his men held out until April 24. On that day Farragut successfully ran with his fleet past the fort’s guns, landing infantry behind the fort. He surrendered on April 28, and was taken prisoner. After being exchanged on August 27, 1862, he was given charge of an infantry brigade during the operations in Kentucky. He briefly commanded a division, and then became General Braxton Bragg’s staff chief in Tennessee but died of typhoid fever in Knoxville.

Bio by: Ugaalltheway

Grave Location

DeFord Bailey

Musician and Country Music Hall of Fame Member. A grandson of slaves, he was not just the first African American to appear on the Grand Ole Opry, he was the first star to appear. The show was originally named the WSM Barn Dance, but when it became a part of the NBC network in 1927 it was renamed The Grand Ole Opry and George D Hay, the announcer, introduced one of the Barn Dance’s most frequent and popular performers as the “Harmonica Wizard” – DeFord Bailey. Bailey did his classic train song, “The Pan American Blues.” The harmonica was his favorite instrument, but he was equally adept with the banjo, guitar, mandolin, and could play the fiddle, but with less skill. He wanted to perform professionally and in 1925 radio station WDAD came to Nashville and asked him to perform. A month later WSM came into being and many WDAD regulars played on both. He remained on the Grand Ole Opry from 1927 to 1941 when they fired him. There were many reasons given for the firing. Some said it was racism. Some said he played the same songs over and over and refused to learn new material. Some say it was because a license conflict with his recording company prevented him from playing his best music on the air. For whatever the reason, he was out of the business and spent 30 years shining shoes at his shop on Twelfth Avenue, South in Nashville. His career was brought to mind again in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and he made an appearance on a local syndicated show called “Night Train.” He made an appearance on the Opry’s old timers show at the old Ryman Auditorium in 1974 and celebrated his 75th birthday by appearing at the new Grand Ole Opry House and playing some of his old songs. He appeared for the last time on the Opry on April 3, 1982. Almost exactly 3 months later he passed away. In 2005, PBS broadcast a documentary called “DeFord Bailey: A Legend Lost.” On November 15, 2005, he joined two other country music legends, Glenn Campbell and Alabama in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Bio by: Tom Todd

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Arna Wendell Bontemps 

Arna Bontemps was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was a poet (PERSONALS), novelist (BLACK THUNDER), editor (THE POETRY OF THE NEGRO), author of children’s books (SAD-FACED BOY). He ended his remarkable career as a teacher and librarian at Fisk University, University of Illinois (Chicago Circle), and Yale. His birthplace in Alexandria is now the Arna Bontemps African American Museum and Cultural Arts Center.

Bio by: Daniel Dyer

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Rev Felix Early Lewis, I 

Religious Figure. He was co-founder, with Mary Lena Tate and Walter Curtis Lewis, of the internationally recognized religious organization known as The Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, Inc. in 1903. He was Chief Overseer of the organization from 1931 until his death in 1968. He established the New and Living Way Publishing Company in Nashville, Tennessee in 1923.

Bio by: Meharry Lewis

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Dr Preston Taylor 

Bussiness man,one of Nashville’s early black millionaires. A former slave who fought for the Union in the United States Colored Infantry during the Civil War. In 1887, Taylor purchased thirty-seven acres of land at Elm Hill Pike and Spence Lane in 1888, he established Nashville’s second oldest cemetery for blacks. He was a minister and undertaker, one of three pioneers who founded Citizens’ Bank. He was also the developer of Greenwood Park ,the annual State Colored Fair was held there, it was an amusement park for blacks at a time when African Americans were not permitted in public parks. Preston Taylor YMCA, Preston Taylor Homes,and Preston Taylor Ministries are all named in Honor of him.

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Mattie Eliza Howard Coleman 

Missionary, Suffragist. Born in Tennessee, in 1870, she was one of the first African American women to become a physician graduating from Meharry Medical College. Active in religious rights and freedoms, she married R.J. Coleman, a CME minister in the Tennessee Conference in the early 1900s. She organized a women’s bible forum and was the first president of the Women’s Missionary Council, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, serving 1918 to 1939. She died in 1942. Note: Dr. Coleman’s grave has the dates 1918-1993, this is not her birth and death dates. These dates reflect when the Missionary Council celebrated the 75th Anniversary of Women’s Missionary Council.

Bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith

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Mary Lena Tate 

Religious Figure. She founded the religious organization known as the Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, Inc. in 1903. She is the first matriarch known to have been elevated to the ecclesiastical rank of bishop in a internationally recognized religious body. The church is a Christian (Pentecostal) church of the Holiness doctrine and polity.

Bio by: Meharry Lewis

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James Knox Polk

11th United States President. He was born on a 250-acre farm in Pineville, North Carolina moving to Tennessee at age 11. After a mere two years of formal education James Knox Polk returned to North Carolina to become an honor student at the University of North Carolina. Upon graduation, he studied law in Nashville and then established a law practice in Columbia. During his first year in the Tennessee Legislature, he was introduced to Sarah Childress by Andrew Jackson. A courtship ensued culminating in marriage. His Congressional career lasted fourteen years including two terms as Speaker of the House. Polk returned home and successfully ran for governor of Tennessee. After a two year term he failed to be reelected. Shrewdly, he did not quit politics. His opportunity to revive his career came at the Democratic convention where he became a compromise candidate and when on to win the White House. James and Sarah arrived in Washington for the inauguration by boat and Sarah set the stage for an austere administration. There was to be no dancing, singing, or alcohol permitted in the Polk White House and the Sabbath would be strictly observed. However, his administration froth with achievement. He expanded the borders of the United States to the Pacific Ocean while adding three states to the Union, started the Naval Academy, began construction of the Washington Monument and issued the first postage stamp while proclaiming a uniform standard for all the states; elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. True to his campaign pledge, he served only a four year term. He and Sarah returned to Tennessee. The couple embarked on an extensive tour of the southern states. At the end of the trip, he moved into his recently purchased estate in Nashville, “Polk Place.” Just four months after leaving the White House, James Polk, the youngest president in history was dead at the age of 53. He was buried at the Nashville City Cemetery and later reinterred on the lawn of his home “Polk Place” under a monument designed by architect William Strickland. His widow, Sarah endured the longest widowhood of any first lady and was in her 43rd year when death took her at the mansion. She was buried beside her husband at age 87. She had allowed the residence and grounds to become a rundown eyesore. Two years after her death it was demolished and both bodies and the monument were relocated to the grounds of the State Capitol. Polk’s greatest legacy was already coming true at the time of his death. America was being forged into a land spanning from sea to shining sea. Pioneers were rushing west to settle or search for gold in California. His birthplace in Pineville is not authentic but a reconstruction on land from the farm of his birth resulted in a few embellished period cabins and a stone historic monument. The Ancestral Home in Columbia, Tennessee was constructed by the Presidents father. It is the only surviving residence of where Polk lived. Here he practiced law and began his political career. The Home displays original items from his years in Tennessee and Washington including furniture paintings and White House china. In the court yard is the cast iron fountain from the demolished Polk mansion in downtown Nashville. It is all that remains of the mansion where the President died and was buried and where Mrs Polk lived until her death and was buried.

Bio by: Donald Greyfield

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David “Stringbean” Akeman 

Comedian, Country Musician. One of the top musical stars of Nashville, Tennessee’ Grand Old Opry during his career, he is best known for being one of the original members the comedy and country music television variety show “Hee Haw”, which he starred in from 1969 until his murder in 1973. He and his wife were killed by burglars, who had heard rumors about them storing cash in his house, and laid in wait until the Akemans arrived home from the Ryman Auditorium (where the Grand Ole Opry was located at the time). The Akemans were known not to trust banks, and “Stringbean” always carried several thousand dollars at a time in his overalls, and he frequently showed it to friends and associates. After killing the Akemans, burglars packed several valuable items, including several firearms, in a pillowcase. The morning after, the Akemans’ friend and neighbor, Louis Marshall “Grandpa” Jones, discovered the bodies, alerted police, and testified in court, positively identifying one of the stolen pistols as one he (Jones) gave “Stringbean” as a present. In 1996, someone discovered $20,000 of the Akeman’s cash hidden above the fireplace. (The cash had long since rotted.)

Bio by: Steve Williams

Grave Location Music Row 10-D-3

Jack Anglin 

Country Musician. Born in Columbia, Tennessee, began his music career with his brothers, performing as the Anglin Brothers, in the 1930s. In 1939, he joined Johnnie Wright and performed as ‘The Happy Roving Cowboys with Jack Anglin’. As a duo, they became ‘Johnnie and Jack’, which had success performing on the Grand Ole Opry, recording and touring. He was killed at age 46, in an auto accident while on the way to Patsy Cline’s funeral.

Bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith

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Bob Foster 

Musician. Born Robert Lee Foster Jr. in 1929, he was a prominent country music steel guitar player in the 1950s. He was one of the busiest studio musicians of era, recording countless sessions with major stars such as George Morgan, Carl Smith, Jim Eanes, Kenny Roberts and Stonewall Jackson. He was noted for his signature song “Guitar Shuffle” and being on the early Patsy Cline records “A Church, A Courtroom” and “Goodbye”. He also toured with Red Foley, Kitty Wells, Webb Pierce and Gene Autry. He died on September 12, 2000, in Nashville, Tennessee and is a member of the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.

Bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith

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Beecher “Brother Oswald” Kirby 

Musician. Born Beecher Ray Kirby, he was a Dobro guitar and banjo player best known as Bashful Brother Beecher. In 1934, taking the stage name Pete Kirby, he joined Roy Acuff’s Crazy Tennesseans in 1934, which became the Smoky Mountain Boys. In 1939, the Smoky Mountain Boys joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry and until Acuff’s death in 1992, he remained a member of the band. During the coarse of his career, he also was a solo artist and a session musician, recording with artist Jerry Douglas, Gene Wooten, Josh Graves and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In his honor, the Gibson Guitar Corporation created a “Brother Oswald” signature series Dobro guitar in 1995. He died of natural causes at age 90.

Bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith

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Robert Autry Inman

Robert Autry Inman was a Grand Ole Opry member and Country Music songwriter. He first performed with Cowboy Copas among others and eventually performed as Autry Inman and the Inmates. He is listed in the Alabama Country Music Hall of Fame and holds the record for “most songs written ad recorded in a single year”.

Bio by: boyce owen

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James Phillip Widener 

American Country Musician. He played rhythm guitar with Hank Snow, a country music singer with over 85 Billboard Hits from 1950s through the 1980s. Upon hearing about country music banjo player and comedian of the TV program “Hee Haw” Stringbean’s murder, he is said to have made the comment, “When music people die it usually comes in threes, I wonder who will be next?” He was murdered the next week.

Grave Location | Back of cemetery, lined up behind the main statue of Jesus

Hawkshaw Hawkins 

Country Musician. Patsy Cline had participated in a benefit concert in Kansas City for the family of a disc jockey (“Cactus” Jack Call) who had died in a car accident. Ramsey (Randy) Hughes, Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Cowboy Copas, were all in Hughes Piper Comanche, when it crashed just west of Camden, TN in a hollow along a ridge line in a heavily wooded area known as Fatty Bottom, near a fire tower off Mule Barn Rd. in Sandy Point, about 5 miles west of the Tennessee River. The plane had left Kansas City about 1:30pm. The reported time of the crash varies sometime between 6:20pm and 7:00pm, March 5, 1963. Patsy’s watch was reportedly stopped at 6:20pm. Ironically, Jack Anglin was killed in an auto accident on the way to Patsy Cline’s funeral. Jack Anglin, Ramsey (Randy) Hughes, and Cowboy Copas, are also buried in this same cemetery.

Bio by: Bill Walker

Grave Location Music Row 10-C-1

Lloyd “Cowboy” Copas 

Country Musician. Patsy Cline had participated in a benefit concert in Kansas City for the family of a disc jockey (“Cactus” Jack Call) who had died in a car accident. Ramsey (Randy) Hughes, Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Cowboy (Lloyd) Copas, were all in Hughes Piper Comanche, when it crashed just west of Camden, TN in a hollow along a ridge line in a heavily wooded area known as Fatty Bottom, near a fire tower off Mule Barn Rd. in Sandy Point, about 5 miles west of the Tennessee River. The plane had left Kansas City about 1:30pm. The reported time of the crash varies sometime between 6:20pm and 7:00pm, March 5, 1963. Patsy’s watch was reportedly stopped at 6:20pm. Ironically, Jack Anglin was killed in an auto accident on the way to Patsy Cline’s funeral. Jack Anglin, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Ramsey (Randy) Hughes, are also buried in this same cemetery.

Bio by: Bill Walker

Grave Location

Don Hugh Helms 

Donald Hugh Helms, musician, music publisher, songwriter, booking agent, founding member of Reunion Of Professional Entertainers, and country music steel guitarist for Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Lefty Frizzell, Patsy Cline, Jett Williams, Hank Williams, Jr. & Johnny Cash. He served in the Army in 1945 and was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame in 1984.

Bio by: Carol STEVENS

Grave Location

Joe Earl Stuart, Jr 

Bluegrass Musician. One of bluegrass legend Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. His first musical gig was on Knoxville’s Cas Walker radio show. He then worked with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs’s Foggy Mountain Boys. He then joined up with Bill Monroe at the Grand Ole Opry as one of the Bluegrass Boys. He knew how to play practically every bluegrass instrument, but due to a collarbone injury at the time, he was a fill-in mandolin player. However, he recorded with Bill Monroe on all the other instruments. At one point he tried professional stock car racing, and although he had won fairly at Talladega, he was disqualified by the race officials. His last wish was that Bill Monroe sing all 25 verses of “John Henry” at his funeral – and sure enough, Bill did.

Bio by: Heather from VA

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Jimmie Crawford 

Renowned Pedal Steel Guitar Musician. Growing up around country music, he began playing in area clubs with Donny Lytle, who would later become famous as Johnny Paycheck. Considered a world class innovative steel player, he also performed with artists Kitty Wells, George Jones, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. After leaving the road in 1975, he became known as a respected teacher and guitar builder when he co-founded the JCH Steel Guitar Company. In the mid-1990s, he decided to perform again and toured with Radney Foster’s band for three years. In 2000, he was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.

Bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith

Grave Location 

Tex “Cousin Jody” Summey 

Comedian. He was a country comedian from the Grand Ole Opry. He did a lot of the comedy routines with Lonzo & Oscar, another comedy Opry act, as well as his own. He was famous for wearing unusual clothes and playing a dobro guitar.

Grave Location | Music Row section, in front of Lefty Frizzell’s grave 8-C-1

Andrew Jackson

7th United States President. When he threw his hat in the ring and decided to run for the presidency, Andrew Jackson the “Hero of New Orleans” was the most popular man in the country and even received a “favorite son” endorsement from Tennessee delegates. Detractors had a field day after his marriage to Rachel Donelson seizing on a marriage technicality to tarnish both their images. He was born to poverty stricken Scottish-Irish immigrants literally on the border between North and South Carolina. His father died in a logging accident before his birth and his mother raised the family alone. He joined the Continental Army as a courier at age thirteen. Andrew was taken prisoner by the British. Because of his ill treatment, Jackson harbored a bitter resentment towards the British until his death. With his mother and both brothers deceased, Andrew was a complete orphan at the age of fourteen. He was apprenticed to a saddle maker. Still a young man, he went to the territory of Tennessee achieving prominence as a lawyer, became a judge and was the owner of a moderate sized plantation. When Tennessee became a state, he became a member of the US House of Representatives, then elected Senator. He sought and won the position of Major General of the Tennessee militia. He led troops against the Indians in both the Creek War and the First Seminole War. During the War of 1812, he gave the Americans a much needed victory at New Orleans giving the country a moral boost just after Washington was burned by the British. To win the presidency, Jackson defeated Adams for his first term and then defeated Clay to claim a second term. Rachel Jackson died a few weeks before her husband’s inauguration and Jackson blamed her early death on stress caused by detractors zeroing in on their supposed immorality of his marriage. The new President believed in a strong presidency and a strong Union. This belief brought him into open opposition with Southern legislators. In order to clear millions of acres of land from Indians, he signed the Indian Removal Act which gave them land west of the Mississippi in exchange for land east of the river. During his administration Arkansas and Michigan were admitted to the Union. He survived an assassination attempt fending off his attacker with his cane. After leaving the Whitehouse, he retired to his home near Nashville which he and Rachel had named The Hermitage. From a small cabin it was expanded, remodeled and rebuilt into a spacious plantation house. Jackson’s health deteriorated acerbated by a bullet lodged near his heart received in a duel but never removed. He died at the Hermitage reaching the age of 77. Thousands attended his funeral. Burial was beside Rachel in a tomb he had designed and constructed. Visiting her grave each evening was one of Jackson’s daily rituals in his declining years. Andrew and Rachel Jackson did not have any children but adopted a nephew of Rachel and gave him the name of Andrew Jackson, Jr. The plantation was willed to him but his debts forced the sale of the property to the State of Tennessee. The Hermitage today is open to the public, restored and is an historic site. The two disputed birthplaces: The Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster South Carolina: The 360 acre park has a historic marker, also a bronze sculpture recognizing the spot. Waxhaws, North Carolina: Located just across the state border from the Andrew Jackson State Park has a restored house and a historic marker. Washington DC has a huge bronze equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson cast from a bronze cannon captured in his last campaign against the Spanish. It has graced Lafayette Park since 1853.

Bio by: Donald Greyfield

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