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A C k N O w L E D g M E N T S This book is Roni Stoneman’s view of her life. It is an oral history, written from seventy-five hours of taped interviews. (For more on this process, see the afterword.) We have dispensed with the usual accompaniments to historical documents, footnotes and editorial comments, because the essence of this narrative is its psychological truth. This is the way one woman, who led a particularly intriguing life, experienced it. We have, however, made every effort to ensure that the text is historically accurate. If there are inaccuracies, we sincerely regret them. We have also made every effort, while still being true to the events that occurred, to avoid hurting people. If we have inadvertently erred in that regard, again we are sorry. While this narrative gains in intensity by limiting itself to one woman’s experiences, it loses, of course, as far as a wider perspective is concerned. We hope that this account will stimulate other writers to fill in the blanks and present their viewpoints of the pivotal moments of country music and TV entertainment chronicled here. For a fuller account of all the Stonemans, readers should consult Ivan M. Tribe’s The Stonemans: An Appalachian Family and the Music That Shaped Their Lives; for a general history of bluegrass, Neil Rosenberg’s Bluegrass: A History ; for the sociological background, John Wright’s Ralph Stanley and the World of Traditional Bluegrass Music; for the role of women in bluegrass, Murphy Henry’s forthcoming book on the subject (all available from the University of Illinois Press) and for more on Hee Haw, Marc Eliot and Sam Lovullo’s Life in the Kornfield (Boulevard Books). We owe great debts to many people. To the scholars who have helped us: Ivan Tribe, without whose meticulously researched book ours would have been several years longer in the making; Norm Cohen, Judy McCulloh , Murphy Henry, and John Wright, who read the manuscript and made knowledgeable and helpful suggestions; and Leon Kagarise, who captured the Stonemans in the fifties, sixties, and seventies in a series of wonderful photographs. To other helpful readers who also made superb editorial comments, Jeanne Lockridge, Carole Smith, Emily Wright, Jennifer Wright, and our agent, Victoria Pryor. To the women who transcribed the tapes and often gave valuable advice: Beverly Zeldin-Palmer, Lea Pinsky, Katie Sharkey, and Amber Day. To those who helped with the photographs: Dick Bangham, Paul Lane, Joe Lee of Pete’s Pluckins, Mike Seeger, and Cookie Snyder. To Roni’s children, Eugene Allen Cox, Rebecca Cox Benton, Barbara Ellen Cox, Robert Alan Cox, and Georgia Hattie Hemrick, and her sisters and brother-in-law Donna Stoneman, Patsy Stoneman Murphy, and John Murphy, who provided photographs and made themselves available for extensive interviews. To others who helped us in numerous ways: Johnny Bellar, Noka Noble Blanco, Alexandra Bellow Calderone, Jimmy Case, Ginny and George Chestnut, George Edelin, Anne Faber, Gus Friedlander, Stuart Geisbert, Robert Gundlach, Henry Head, Sam Lovullo, Marcia Minor, Joanna and Mark Pinsky, Portia, Melrose Smith, Peggy Stanley, and Gerry Szymanski. And special thanks to Virginia Leigh Bolden, for making Roni laugh. And to John Wright, for his extraordinary support at every stage of this project. xii / acknowledgments ...

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