Grandpa Jones Singer and banjo player

Louis (Grandpa) Jones was born in 1913 in Kentucky.  Like most of country singers of his time he was born into a country lifestyle... His father was a poor share cropper farmer.  He grew up in Akron, Ohio, where he began to sing country music.   He met a musician, Bradley Kincaid, who gave him the nickname “Grandpa” because Jones was grumpy in the mornings.   Jones began to live up to the nickname, creating a character who was an old man, and who played guitar and banjo.    Jones joined the US Army during World War II, and put his singing career on hold.  When he left the Army in 1946 he moved to Nashville Tennessee and started to perform on the Opry.  He married Ramona Riggins who became part of his act.   She was a talented singer and musician herself.  In the 1960s Grandpa became part of the comedy country show “Hee Haw” which ran for a long time and where his talents as a comedian and musician were showcased. He often played banjo with the tall “Stringbean” Dave Akerman..  - Stringbean was a well known comedy performer who was killed with his wife in a robbery in 1973.  (Grandpa who lived near Stringbean and his wife just outside Nashville, was the one who Discovered the bodies). 

Grandpa had a long and productive life and died soon after doing a show at the Opry at the age of 84.