The Dayton Main Street Program will host its first Dayton Heritage Dinner at the Dayton VFW, Saturday, March 31, at 6 p.m.
The Kentucky-themed dinner will feature beans and corn bread as well as sweet and unsweetened tea. Beer and wine will be available at an additional cost. Everyone is encouraged to bring a dessert to share.
“Our Main Street Board wanted to come up with a way to support the many volunteer organizations, and we thought a community Beans and Cornbread Dinner would be a fun way to bring people out,” Dayton Main Street Director Robert Yoder said. “Our Beans and Cornbread will be prepared by Richard Zumwalde, Chef at Dayton’s famed Purple Poulet Restaurant.”
Entertainment will be provided by David Hurt, performing as Kentucky’s own Grandpa Jones, as part of the Kentucky Humanities Kentucky Chautauqua Program.
Louis Marshall Jones, better known as Grandpa, was the son of Henderson County sharecroppers. Jones, who had a repertoire of songs learned from his parents and the radio, won a talent contest that led to regular work on an Akron radio station. That launched a career that lasted more than 60 years. It was during tours with country music star Bradley Kincaid in the 1930s that Jones developed the Grandpa persona he used the rest of his life.
Jones wrote many of his most popular songs. Like many old-time musicians, he struggled during the rock-and-roll craze of the 1950s — he toured Canada and tried his hand at early television. Beginning in 1969, television brought Jones fame as a member of the original cast of “Hee Haw,” which showcased his skills as a vaudeville comic.
Grandpa Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978. He never retired, suffering a fatal stroke after a performance at the Grand Ole Opry in 1998.
The entertainment is free, and tickets for the dinner will be available at the City Building, the Dayton Heritage Museum, and available at the door for $6 each for adults and $4 each for child. Proceeds from the dinner will be used to help fund Dayton Community Organizations.
Dayton Main Street
