Lucy 1897
The town of
Lucy was founded in 1873 and was situated on the
Memphis Paducah Railroad. It is believed to be
named after Lucy Tice McDaniel Ralston who
belonged to one of the first families to settle
the area. While traveling the Mississippi they
were driven up the Loosahatchie River by a
storm. They used the wood from the riverboat to
build their cabin.
Lucy Baptist Church, 4005 Lucy Road, was
established in 1870 at the “town hall” of the
Township of Lucy, Tennessee. A frame building
was erected in 1875 under an oak tree at the
present location donated by John and Albert
Duncan. Payment for the property was “in
consideration of $1.00”. In 1870, Lucy Baptist
Church was part of the Big Hatchie Association
of Baptist churches; in 1903 she became part of
the newly formed Shelby Baptist Association,
which since 2004 became the Mid-South Baptist
Association of Churches. The first recorded
members joined in 1897. Baptisms in early days
were held in the Loosahatchie River on
Raleigh-Millington Road. Since then, several
buildings and additions have been constructed to
accommodate the church’s growth in membership
and ministries.
Three historic cemeteries are located within the
Lucy community. Union Cemetery is located at
4393 Pleasant Ridge Road at Raleigh-Millington
Road); Big Creek Cemetery at 6797 Big Creek
Church Road; and Ralston Family Cemetery to the
west at 3121 Ward Road.
Lucy Elementary School, 6269 Amherst Road, was
established in 1912 and is a public elementary
school located near Millington in the Shelby
County School District. It enrolls 487 students
in Pre-K and grades 1st through 12th.
The Lucy Opry was founded in 1967 by Doug Cole,
Joe Taylor, DeWitt (Dee) Franklin, Bill Beck and
others, who were looking for a place to play
Bluegrass Music in Memphis.
They
had been meeting on a weekly basis at each
other's homes for several years, until the
gatherings had become too large to handle the
numbers of people who showed up. They needed a
"place" to play that could accommodate all the
pickers and family members, as well as any
interested spectators that might show up. The
Lucy Opry was a Friday night gathering of
Bluegrass musicians that was popular and opened
to the public. It was held in Lucy from the
1970’s until 2009 when it moved to Bartlett.
One day in 1967, Doug Cole was out looking for a
practice field for the Little League Baseball
team that he coached. He happened to drive by a
frame building called the
"Brunswick-Lucy-Woodstock Community Center" in
the Lucy Community, on Pleasant Ridge Road near
Millington in rural North Shelby County, and
thought it might be a good place to use for a
picking venue. He contacted the owner of the
building and found out that the rent for the
building was $4 per night. Doug got together
with his musician friends and they began to rent
the building on a weekly basis. The weekly
meetings were always on Friday nights, so that
the musicians could be free to play "paying"
jobs on Saturday nights. They paid for the
building rent by "passing the hat". At first,
the only people to show up were the pickers and
their families and the "rent" was paid by the
musicians themselves. Eventually the word got
around about the music and the family atmosphere
and people began to come just to watch the
informal shows.
For a long time, the shows alternated between
Bluegrass one week, and Country Music the
following week. This was done to preserve the
acoustical aspect of the Bluegrass Music and to
allow the Country pickers a chance to hear and
learn Bluegrass music. Most of the musicians
just came to "Jam" on the Bluegrass nights, and
soon the informal "Jam" sessions came to attract
as many people outside in the parking lot, as
did the "shows" inside. Many people found out
that if they wanted to learn to play a Bluegrass
instrument and learn Bluegrass tunes, that there
were plenty of people in the parking lot who
were willing to show them what they knew.
Sometime around the Spring of 1974, the Lucy
Opry was moved to another location at 869 Fite
Road, where it stayed for many years. At this
time, the alternating Bluegrass and Country
format was abandoned, concentrating on Bluegrass
only. The Lucy Opry stayed at the Fite Road
location until 1982, and then moved to the
Kiwanis Club building in the Raleigh area of
Memphis until 1983. This building, although
small, had a nice stage and was in fairly good
condition, unlike the Fite Road location. In
1983, the Lucy Opry moved to the UAW Union Hall,
near the International Harvester plant in
Frayser, where the Opry stayed until January of
2000.
The "amateur" aspect of Lucy has continued under
the banner of The Memphis Area Bluegrass
Association, who sponsor several weekly
"picking" events and who also help run the show
at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center (BPACC.org).
Each performance of the Lucy Opry opens with a
filmed presentation of the "early days" at Lucy,
taken at the old Fite Road site. Doug Cole
narrates this presentation. It is a fitting
tribute to the tradition that was established by
Doug and the other "pioneers" of The Lucy Opry,
and serves as a bridge from the present to the
past "Glory Days" of Lucy.
Note: With contributions from Valerie Barfield,
Shelby County Historical Commission
For more
about Bluegrass Music in the Memphis and Shelby
County area,
go to
www.memphis-bluegrass.org
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