12
May

Mother’s Day 2014

Written by Don Reid on May 12th, 2014 Posted in General

Debbie, Debo, Langdon and I spent Mother’s Day in Richmond, VA at the 1st Annual Jimmy Dean Festival.  It was a fund-raiser benefiting children of Henrico County and also a day of honoring Jimmy.  They unveiled a seven-foot statue of him that is being shipped this week to Plainview, TX, his hometown, where it will forever stand in memoriam to him.

Jimmy Dean was such a good friend.  Our paths crossed many times through our careers and when he moved to Richmond in the ‘90s, we became close.  We visited back and forth and talked on the phone all the time.  When he passed away in June of 2010, his wife, Donna, asked me to speak at his funeral.  She also told me just this weekend that I was the last person he talked to on the phone.  The last person he called.  My birthday was just a few days before his demise and he had called and sung Happy Birthday to me as he did each year.  Such a treasured moment.

So in the spirit of our friendship, she asked me to be a part of his celebration yesterday.  Being Mother’s Day, she wanted me to do one of Jimmy’s best pieces he had written and performed many, many times:  “I.O.U”.  This is a recitation he wrote for his mother and you still hear it all over the radio every Mother’s Day weekend.  It’s a tear-jerker; one I had told Jimmy often that I always turned off whenever it came on the air because I couldn’t listen to it all the way through without tearing up.

Well, yesterday I had to hear it all the way through.  As Langdon joined me on stage and played background music on the piano, I got through some of the most beautiful and heartfelt words ever written about mothers.  JD was there in the power of his words and in the hearts of all who sat and listened and soaked up the sincerity that dripped from each syllable; from each soulful memory of a mother’s love and caring nature.

Don & Bill Anderson

Then, on a more upbeat note, Bill Anderson, another good and old friend came out and did a 90-minute show.  What a thrill to spend some time with him.  Bill was on our first professional tour back in 1964, so he was one of the first friends we ever made in the music industry.  (From the stage, Bill pointed out that “City Lights” was the only song of his that the Statler Brothers ever recorded.  I almost stood up and refuted that fact, but then got to thinking about it and realized he was probably right.  Don’t know why because we all think he is one of the best songwriters Nashville has ever produced.)  And “Still” is maybe the best country song ever written.

Hope your Mother’s Day was as happy as mine.                                                                                                                                          DSR 5/12/14