Henry Young and the Jimmie Rodgers Stamp
How many of you have heard about or saw The Jimmie Rodgers postage stamp??Heres the story about how it all came about in a nut shell ! I came across this article written by a friend of this man and thought it worth sharing.................. let me take you back a little to the middle 70's when a man that was soon to become a good friend of ours sent us a piece of notebook paper with a sketch drawn out on it of a man, on the man's head was a railroad cap and the man had both his thumbs sticking up kinda leaning over his guitar.
Of course the man was supposed to be Jimmie Rodgers and what this man had drawn was supposed to be a stamp, and while I was looking at this crude drawing, I was thinking, it will be a cold day in St. Petersburg before this is ever something we'll be lickin' and stickin' on a letter, because in those years people were sending the Postmaster pictures of everything from their dog to their grandmother hoping they would soon see it on a stamp.
BUT my friend was no quitter, he made copies of that drawing and sent it to everyone he thought would read his letter, from the President on down. He never mentions the fact about how much he knew about Jimmie Rodgers, but he did mention that he to had been a brakeman for the railroads..The truth is, this man probably knows more about Jimmie Rodgers than any one else living today, not only was he doing a radio show in Delano, California playing all of Jimmie's records, and we mean the original 78's scratches and all, and they were all his, and he had a story to go with every single record, like when they were recorded, where they were recorded and probably how Jimmie was feeling and the clothes he was wearing on that particular day.
My friends name is "HENRY YOUNG" age has caught up with him now, but unlike most of us that never quite reach that one big dream, Henry did, because on May the 24th. 1978 Henry was sitting on a stage in Meridian, Mississippi, also on that stage and standing before a packed house in front of a microphone was the daughter of the great Jimmie Rodgers , Anita Rodgers Court, and almost the first words out of her mouth were these, "If it had not have been for Henry Young, there would have been NO stamp of my father".
Of course after others could see how far this had gone, naturally they tried to take credit for it, but Henry knew and the Rodgers family knew, and as I watched that show from the video that Henry had sent us, that old piece of notebook paper flashed through my mind, with a man and a guitar and two thumbs up, and I thought to my self, by god you did it Henry.
On November the 3rd. 1961 Jimmie Rodgers name was placed at the Country Music Foundation in Nashville, Tennessee, as the first entrant into the COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME.
Like Jimmie Rodgers, Henry Young's life centered around the Railroads, he to was a brakeman and he to loved the music, but I think Henry thought most about the honesty of Jimmie's music and how much it was a part of the people, a real part. People were poor in those days and usually only a few could afford the price of a record, but that seemed to be o.k., Henry would either go to a friends or stop by a store where they happened to be playing the latest J.R. record and a few times more of hearing it would know all the words and of course the first thing he would say when he ran across another friend was, "Have you heard Jimmie's new record" ?.
Of course the man was supposed to be Jimmie Rodgers and what this man had drawn was supposed to be a stamp, and while I was looking at this crude drawing, I was thinking, it will be a cold day in St. Petersburg before this is ever something we'll be lickin' and stickin' on a letter, because in those years people were sending the Postmaster pictures of everything from their dog to their grandmother hoping they would soon see it on a stamp.
BUT my friend was no quitter, he made copies of that drawing and sent it to everyone he thought would read his letter, from the President on down. He never mentions the fact about how much he knew about Jimmie Rodgers, but he did mention that he to had been a brakeman for the railroads..The truth is, this man probably knows more about Jimmie Rodgers than any one else living today, not only was he doing a radio show in Delano, California playing all of Jimmie's records, and we mean the original 78's scratches and all, and they were all his, and he had a story to go with every single record, like when they were recorded, where they were recorded and probably how Jimmie was feeling and the clothes he was wearing on that particular day.
My friends name is "HENRY YOUNG" age has caught up with him now, but unlike most of us that never quite reach that one big dream, Henry did, because on May the 24th. 1978 Henry was sitting on a stage in Meridian, Mississippi, also on that stage and standing before a packed house in front of a microphone was the daughter of the great Jimmie Rodgers , Anita Rodgers Court, and almost the first words out of her mouth were these, "If it had not have been for Henry Young, there would have been NO stamp of my father".
Of course after others could see how far this had gone, naturally they tried to take credit for it, but Henry knew and the Rodgers family knew, and as I watched that show from the video that Henry had sent us, that old piece of notebook paper flashed through my mind, with a man and a guitar and two thumbs up, and I thought to my self, by god you did it Henry.
On November the 3rd. 1961 Jimmie Rodgers name was placed at the Country Music Foundation in Nashville, Tennessee, as the first entrant into the COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME.
Like Jimmie Rodgers, Henry Young's life centered around the Railroads, he to was a brakeman and he to loved the music, but I think Henry thought most about the honesty of Jimmie's music and how much it was a part of the people, a real part. People were poor in those days and usually only a few could afford the price of a record, but that seemed to be o.k., Henry would either go to a friends or stop by a store where they happened to be playing the latest J.R. record and a few times more of hearing it would know all the words and of course the first thing he would say when he ran across another friend was, "Have you heard Jimmie's new record" ?.
posted by Jim Myrick | 3:48 PM
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