Pressing On: The Roni Stoneman Story

28. Now

K N ? K Now Well, it’s about fifteen years since the end of Hee Haw, and eight years since I got my last divorce. So what’s going on now in my life? Where am I now? Well, things are good. On the personal side, in spite of my horrendous track record with marriage, I’m still dating. Optimistic, huh? Why do I date so much? Well, I’m friendly. And with my personality, and the comedy that I naturally can’t help . . . Well, dating’s only fun and games, but the really important part of my personal life has turned out terrific. My kids and grandkids are wonderful , and I spend a lot of time just enjoying them. They’re intelligent and talented and thoughtful and compassionate. Eugene has his important job, and a marvelous wife, Angela, and the kids, Dustin, Lucas, and Matthew, all in college. Bobby’s got a day job and he plays music at night. And Becky’s all set doing so great in her career, and having a Now pressing on / 233 steady boyfriend, and providing a home lots of the time for Barbara as well as her own wonderful kids, Michael and Stephen. Barbara’s very involved with training her dog—and still can sing to beat the band. And Georgia’s going to school to become a drama teacher and trying to stay one step ahead of her daughter, my precious Virginia. On the professional side, I’ve been working a lot. That lull time after Hee Haw ended is over, and I’m back to playing bluegrass festivals, college auditoriums, and nightclubs. I feel very fortunate that I still am healthy and I can still do my comedy and make people laugh. And I can still play the banjo really fast—I just found a new kind of glue that helps me keep my finger picks from flying off! : So, I guess we’re at the conclusion of all this. But there doesn’t seem to be a conclusion, a neat way to wrap this book up. At least I can’t think of some one sentence that I could point to and say “Yep, that’s it! That’s my life in a nutshell!” I was trying to think of something to compare my life to. Maybe a roller coaster, with all those ups and downs? But it wasn’t that organized. Or maybe those little skits from Hee Haw, just little scenes. Except that those segments on the show always ended on a happy funny note. And my life wasn’t always all that funny. Though you could say that even a lot of the really sad unfortunate things did lead to good results. For instance, the family was pooristic. But that meant that we had to learn how to be creative, like when Momma painted the linoleum and taught us to make things out of the red clay. And because I had no toys, I had to learn to compete with my brothers, obsess over the banjo, get good enough to play with Scott. Another sad thing was my feeling insecure when I was growing up, what people now say is “low self-esteem.” I never felt attractive or intelligent, and in many ways this was because I was growing up like a typical southern mountain girl. I did heavy work around the house, and I got picked on by my brothers. It seemed my religion taught me that the men were the bosses and that I should always turn the other cheek. I think that all set me up for not getting enough love in my marriages, and for staying in those marriages even when the men were abusive. 234 / pressing on But that lack of love also led to good things. I poured my love into my kids, who turned out so good. And into my entertaining. I really think all that insecurity and lack of love was necessary to my performing . Because if you’re happy, you’re totally self-confident, you’re not going to be a very good entertainer out there. You gotta have a special relationship with your audience. You gotta need them, need their love. I know I usually felt beneath everybody in the audience. And I did need that love flowing back to me. When George was beating on me so much, and I felt like...