Today’s talented southerner was born on August 22, 1957, in San Antonio, TX. Throughout high school and college, she performed and wrote music with her brother and future song writing pro, Chris Waters. One of the siblings’ collaborations, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” was recorded by the popular Christy Lane. The song’s success convinced Holly to give it a go in Nashville, the home

He was born on February 17th, 1945. His mother gave birth to him and his twin brother on the floor of an abandoned building in a low-income district of Miami, FL. Soon she gave them both up for adoption. Their new mother was a single lady with little more to offer the boys in the material sense than their birth mother. But fortunately for

He was born in Texas in 1926. He grew up on a cotton farm about 35 miles east of Dallas, the son of a Texas lawman and Justice of the Peace who taught him the basics of music. He started singing in high school with a band called “Billy Boyd’s Cowboy Ramblers”. But before the year was out Uncle Sam cut the young musician’s gig

He was born into a prosperous Virginia farming family. During the course of his life he was, by turns, a surveyor, a planter, and a soldier. A lack of information about his childhood fueled many of the stories that were later told by ambitious and over-reaching biographers. Included in those tales that were subsequently questioned is the famous story of an honest boy and an

He was born in Oklahoma on December 7th, 1947. When, as a young boy, he voiced his dream to become a major league baseball player, his dad said his best chance of getting there was as a catcher. The young southerner followed his dad's advice all the way to the big leagues. After just two seasons in the Cincinnati Red's minor league, the twenty year

He was born April 15th, 1933 in Meherrin, Virginia. During his childhood his father, a guitar, banjo, and fiddle playing cotton picker moved the family to Washington DC to pursue a career as a computer programmer. Even then, the young father took odd jobs playing at local dances to supplement the family income. By the age of fourteen Roy had learned to play the banjo,

I enjoy quoting famous southerners in this “Southern Quote” segment of our porch visits, but I’m just as determined not to neglect the entertaining local wisdom of our region. So today, we’re going to examine one of our more common southern sayings. We southerners all know that when someone begins anything by saying, “I’ll tell you how the cow ate the cabbage”, this person is

He was born in Tennessee in 1880. After graduating from Vanderbilt University with a double major in Greek and Latin, he took the work ethic learned from twelve hour days in the fields and applied it to his chosen career. The Tennessee farm boy not only became a top notch reporter, columnist, poet, and author, he’s also considered the first superstar sportscaster. Grantland Rice, or “Granny”

This country crooner was born on October 28th, 1972 in the tiny town of Glen Dale, West Virginia. His earliest memory is running down to his grandfather's house to listen to the older man play the music of the all time greats like Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. He was only eight when that grandfather gave him his first guitar, but two years later Brad

She was born in 1957 and raised in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the fourth of five children born to a retired Army major and homemaker. She and her siblings grew up working at the town's cinema where their father was manager. Beth doled out popcorn and soda and lived for the moments when she'd be allowed to slip into a movie herself. The flashing screen fueled a