Legendary Musicians Honored at Three Nashville Music Museums

By Jackie Sheckler Finch

George Glenn Jones almost died before he got a chance to live. The family doctor dropped the baby shortly after delivery. The sturdy newborn survived with only a broken arm.

But what a life the country music legend went on to live in that interval between the day he entered this world on Sept. 12, 1930, and the day he left on April 26, 2013.

“George went to hell and back with many addictions and he beat them all,” said widow Nancy Jones.

His Museum Opened in 2015

To share the story of the man many consider the greatest voice in country music, his widow opened the George Jones Museum in Nashville on April 26, 2015.

In addition to the George Jones Museum, music fans of all genres and all ages now have even more reasons to visit “Music City.” Several new museums honoring entertainers have opened, adding to already popular landmark attractions.

George Jones Museum

A timeline of George Jones’ music invites visitors to put on headphones and listen to his songs over the years. A small theater with rocking chairs – a nod to his “I don’t need no rocking chair” hit – allows guests to rock in comfort while watching Jones’ video clips.

Other relics of the honky-tonk hero include his sequined suits and the infamous blue American Tourister overnight case that Jones called his “getaway bag,” always kept packed and ready for a quick exit.

A photo of George and his John Deere mower recalls a legendary tale when the inebriated singer rode his mower to a nearby liquor store after a friend took away his car keys.

Another exhibit dedicated to Jones’ tumultuous marriage to county icon Tammy Wynette showcases her white satin and chiffon dress which she left behind after their divorce.

A major turning point in George’s troubled life occurred when he married Nancy Sepulvada in 1983. However, on April 18, 2013, the music was cut short when George was hospitalized with a fever and irregular blood pressure. He was 81 years old.

“I was with George the whole time,” Nancy said. Although she continued talking to him, she said Jones didn’t open his eyes or talk for his final five days – until the last minute.

“I was standing at the foot of his bed rubbing his feet,” Nancy said. “Suddenly, he opened his eyes and said, ‘Well, hello there. My name is George Jones and I’ve been looking for you.’ I know he was talking to God. And then he was gone.” George Jones Museum 

Patsy Cline Museum

Patsy Cline saved the memories of her life. After the singer’s death, her husband Charlie Dick kept his wife’s memorabilia safe without telling even their daughters.

Locked away for more than half a century, Patsy Cline’s collection is now being shared with the public at a new museum opened in downtown Nashville on April 7, 2017.

“Patsy Cline was very sentimental,” said museum founder Bill Miller. “I think people will be really surprised at what we have in the museum.”

Arranged in chronological order, exhibits trace Patsy Cline’s life from her birth on Sept. 8, 1932, in Winchester, Va., to her death in a plane crash near Camden, Tenn., on March 5, 1963. She was 30 years old.

Artifacts are displayed from every stage of Cline’s life, including a porch seat from her childhood home and a booth from Gaunt’s Drug Store where she used to work. After her father deserted them, Cline dropped out of school at 15 to help support the family.

She sang in juke joints, amateur musicals, and talent shows. It was at a local club where Cline met Charlie Dick. The two married in 1957 and had two children, Julie, born in 1958, and Randy, born in 1961. Dick died Nov. 8, 2015, at age 81 and was buried next to Cline in Winchester, Virginia.

Some of the surprising exhibits are furniture, ashtrays and a still-running Norge refrigerator Cline had in her Nashville home. A carefully arranged photo album commemorates her wedding to Charlie Dick. And the front door key to her “dream home” still dangles from a tattered string.

Among the most poignant items are those recovered at the site of the plane crash that took Cline’s life, as well as the lives of singers Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas and Cline’s manager Randy Hughes who was piloting the plane. The group was returning from a benefit show in Kansas City. Displayed is the silver Elgin watch Cline was wearing when she died.

The final exhibit showcases outfits that Cline had designed and wanted famed tailor Nudie Cohn to create for her. “When an artist wore Nudie, it was their way of saying, ‘I’ve arrived,’” the exhibit notes.

Cline wrote to Cohn on Feb. 28, 1963, including her instructions and measurements. Nudie responded to Cline that he would take on the work. But his letter arrived too late. Cline was dead.

“We didn’t want to leave people with the somber exhibit of Patsy’s

death so this year we had Nudie’s granddaughter make the outfits from Patsy’s designs,” Miller said.

“When the family found all of Patsy’s things that Charlie Dick had saved, it makes me believe that this museum was meant to be. Patsy Cline was an icon, the best-loved female singer of all time.”
Patsy Cline Museum

Johnny Cash Museum

When Bill Miller was 13 years old, he went to a Johnny Cash concert that changed the course of his life.

“Johnny Cash played the harmonica and tossed it into the audience when he was done,” Miller said. “I caught it.”

That was just the beginning. Over the years, Miller collected a treasure trove of Johnny Cash memorabilia and became friends with the legendary entertainer.

Tribute to the Man in Black

After Cash’s death, Miller decided to share his collection with the public as a tribute to “The Man in Black.” The Johnny Cash Museum opened in downtown Nashville in 2013 and has been drawing visitors ever since.

Walking in the footsteps of Johnny Cash, visitors to his museum traverse exhibits from the singer’s life, including his hardscrabble childhood days in Dyess, Ark., his Air Force years, his famous prison concert tour, his TV and movie career, his marriage to June Carter, and his final days.

As Johnny Cash’s youngest sister, Joanne Cash Yates remembers that her brother was determined to become a singer, despite the odds against him. “He said, ‘Baby, one day you’re going to hear me singing on the radio.’ I laughed at that. He always called me ‘Baby’ because I was the youngest girl.”

Her Brother, JR

To Yates, however, her big brother was always J.R. “That was the name on his birth certificate. That’s what we always called him,” she said. “Mommy wanted to name him John after her father.

Daddy wanted to name him Ray after himself. They couldn’t decide so they named him J.R.”

When Cash went in the Air Force, the government wasn’t going to allow a serviceman to have two initials for his name. “They told him that wouldn’t do. So J.R. said his name was John and that’s what people started calling him. I guess Mom won after all.”

Four Glass Marbles

Items include four glass marbles that were among his few childhood toys and a guitar with a dollar bill stuffed into the upper strings. Because Cash’s band did not have a drummer until later, the dollar bill was used to simulate the sound of drums keeping a beat. You can hear this most in the original recording of “I Walk the Line.”

Visitors also can put on headphones and listen to Cash music from various decades, including one of his final hit releases before his death – the heart-rending video for “Hurt.” In it, the tormented still-powerful voice intones, “Everyone I know goes away in the end.”

A Sad Video

Cash was 71 years old when the video was filmed in February 2003. Seen in the video sadly gazing at her husband, June Carter Cash died May 15, three months after filming. Johnny Cash lived only four months after his wife died.

What he wrote on a box of Valentine candy he gave her in 1998 seems to say it all – “My Love, My Life, For Life.”

For Miller, the museum was a labor of love, a tribute to the man he called a friend. “I was with Johnny about a week before he passed. I know he would love the museum.”

Cash’s sister agrees. “Not long before J.R. passed away, he said to me, ‘Baby, when I’m gone, I wonder if anybody will really care,'” she said. “So I think he’d be really proud that this museum is here where people can come and remember him.” Johnny Cash Museum