In Don McLean’s 1971 song American Pie the unforgettable words are “the day the music is died.”
For 30 years people from all over the world would come to Hugo America for the Bluegrass festival. Founder Bill Grant was a Bluegrass Music mogul. He was known for his inimitable singing style, unique mandolin playing, and skill as a songwriter says Sandra Brennan of All Music. She goes on to say Bill Grant and his partner Delia Bell were among the best male-female duets in bluegrass music.
Grant was recognized as “Ambassador of Bluegrass Music” by three Oklahoma governors, states Wikipedia. Delia Bell was born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma. Grant was a friend of her husband’s and in 1959 they teamed up to sing at local events and on the Little Dixie Hayride show at radio station KIHN Hugo. They also played once a month on a TV station in Ada, Oklahoma.
In 1969, Grant and Bell attended Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom Festival before forming the Kiamichi Mountain Boys with the Bonham Family. Grant founded the Kiamichi label in 1971 and during the ’70s they recorded a number of albums. Bell cut a solo country record in 1978; the next year, she and Grant toured Great Britain and recorded a country album there. The Kiamichi Boys disbanded in 1980 because the Bonhams refused to travel, while Bell and Grant wanted to work the national festival circuit. That same year, Emmylou Harris cut one of Bell’s songs, “Roses in the Snow; ” Harris claimed that Bell was her very favorite singer and helped her get a contract with Warner Bros. As the decade wore on, Bell and Grant recorded a pair of albums for Rebel and three for Rounder before switching to the Old Homestead label.
Bill may have traveled the world but he would always return to Hugo, Oklahoma. In late summer his outdoor Blue Grass festival at Hugo’s Salt Creek would draw thousands of people for the five day event. Sunday’s was Gospel day which everyone looked forward to. It was touted the oldest festival of it’s kind west of the Mississippi.
My husband and I had the great priviledge of meeting Mr. Grant at one of those festivals and that’s all it took. He remembered us both from then on whether he was the entertainment for a Rotary banquet or the indoor Early Bird Bluegrass festival every spring. If you met him once he considered you his friend and he never forgot your name.
As the times changed and Bluegrass music dwindled, visitors came to Hugo less and less. Bill couldn’t afford the taxes on Salt Creek and it went up for sale. Shortly thereafter his first wife passed and he stopped traveling. We thought he was probably done singing as well when he fell in love and started it all up again.
His new wife Barbara was his biggest fan. She was quite the salesperson! She peddled his songs to whomever she came in contact with. And she accompanied him on all his gigs, they were inseparable. Now Bill was no spring chicken when they met but she brought the life back into him. We were amazed what he could still do but after several years and as time would have it his life drew to an end.
After a few weeks Barbara, Bill’s wife came in my husband and I’s insurance office to do business, she was understandably distraught. I helped her with her affairs and gave her a copy of my book, Rhinestone Cowgirl. I told her that people told me it encouraged them after a loss. She thanked me and left.
The next day she came in my office and sat down in the chair. She took a minute to speak and then with tear filled eyes said “I have peace!” She said that Bill had been sick for a while and caring for him became a full time job. In his last days he would fade in and out and say he just wanted to ride a horse again. When he passed there was so much to do and she showed me a picture of his beautiful headstone. She said she really hadn’t had time to think about anything for herself. She said she asked God where Bill was before she had come in my office the first time. She said she hadn’t been able to sleep or even shed a tear. That night she went to bed and read my book. She said she cried uncontrollably and fell fast asleep. She knows Bill is riding horses in Heaven now.
Revelation 19:14
“And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.”
https://bible.com/bible/100/rev.19.14.NASB1995
Rhinestone Cowgirl 