Don Reid

Don will speak at the Retired Educators Luncheon on Thursday October 7th.

This is a private affair.

Don will be speaking at the Mt. Vernon Church of the Brethren in Stuarts Draft, VA for their Homecoming on Sunday September 26, 2010 at 11 am.

I was on a week’s vacation with the family when I got the phone call Sunday night a week ago.   Jimmy Dean had passed away about an hour before and Donna, his wife, didn’t want  me to hear it on the news.  How very thoughtful of her with all she was going through at the time.  But that’s the kind of people they both have always been.  

I talked to her a couple of times through the week and she asked me if I would speak at the funeral.  I wasn’t sure I had the grit to do it but I certainly didn’t have the heart not to.  So yesterday we went to the last chapter in Jimmy’s life with a lot of other friends and family and said our goodbyes.  Four people spoke, George Hamilton IV, Williard Scott, Jimmy’s daughter Connie Taylor and me. I think I can best serve the moment by just reprinting the words I offered as his eulogy.   

       I don’t even remember when we first became friends.  Jimmy was about a decade and a half older than me, so he was always there.  I grew up hearing him on the radio, watching him on Washington tv on Saturday nights on the Town and Country Jamboree, and then all of his network shows.  The Statlers then started crossing paths with him on television and concerts.  We were even on the same record label for years and a great and  deep friendship blossomed. 

When he moved to Richmond when he and Donna got married, we would come down here often and they would come up to Staunton to see us.  They even came to our final concert and Jimmy introduced us that night- brought us on stage for the last time.  And just before we all five walked out, we  had a prayer together.  That was the kind of friend he was.

In the past couple of years as his health began to fail, we didn’t see one another quite as often but we talked a lot on the phone.  He would call anytime, day or night, and I’m sure a lot of you here today can relate with this.  He always had a joke to tell me or was just checking in.

The first time I saw Jimmy in a wheelchair was at his 80th birthday party.  It bothered me.  But it didn’t bother him.  He handled it with a dignity and grace that only he could muster up and sell.  And again I sat at his feet and we laughed and talked and he regaled me with stories about early tv that he knew I loved to hear.

The last time I talked to Jimmy was just days before his passing.  He called me on my birthday.  And when I picked up the phone there was that old warm, familiar, swingin’, honey-drippin’ voice singing Happy Birthday to me.  The voice wasn’t as strong as it once was; wasn’t as clear as it once was; but it was just as sweet as it ever was.  And when he finished singing, I was in tears.

I said, “I appreciate that so much, buddy, but what can I do for you?”

And he said, and the words are still ringing in my ears and I think they’ll always be; he said, “Ole pal of mine, you can just continue to be the good friend to me you’ve always been for as long as I live.”

I said, “That’s a given.  Give me something hard to do.”

After a couple more minutes we hung up.  And I had no idea I’d never talk to him again.

But in all His glory, God is always in charge.  And today Jimmy is the Sleeping Beauty.  Because he was a beauty from inside.  He had a heart and a smile the size of the state he hailed from.  He was my friend and I loved him dearly and I will miss him for all the tomorrows to come as I know everyone will who knew him and care for him.

God be with you, my friend, and I know He is.  God be with you.

After the funeral, we went back to Chaffin Bluff, Jimmy and Donna’s house on the James River, for a private burial.  His body was entombed in a granite mausoleum shaped like a giant piano that sits on the riverbank and can be seen from the kitchen window.  Sitting in the gazebo 30 feet away, you feel like he never left; that you can still sit there and talk to him and hear his voice over the sound of the boats going by below. 

There was lunch in what they always called the ‘party house’ by the pool.  Harold and Brenda and Debbie and I were joined by another old and good friend since day one, Bill Anderson.  While eating and reminiscning , Bill had the line that capped the day.  He said, “We know we’re getting old when we start attending more funerals than we do weddings.”  Sad but true, Bill.  Sad but true.

                                               Tuesday June 22, 2010 – 7:00 am

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for the website.  The Christmas holidays were full and I just didn’t find the time.  I’ve heard from a lot of good folks who wanted an update, and to be honest there are a few things happening you might be interested in.

A couple of weeks ago, Harold and Phil and I traveled to Nashville and hooked up with Jimmy for an afternoon and evening with Bill Gaither.  Bill’s an old friend and after hours of visiting and eating, we wound up in the studio for an interview with him that will be used in a new Homecoming video.  It will feature many of the closing gospel songs from our tv series, The Statler Brothers Show, from the 90s.  The songs in their entirety will be interspersed with our conversation and should see a 2010 Spring or Summer release.  Watch the Statler website for an availability date.  You can order from us or from Bill.

This week, we’re heading back to Nashville for the celebration of the release of a new album by the top Bluegrass group in the industry.  It’s titled DAILY AND VINCENT SING THE STATLER BROTHERS.  It’s a salute to us with twelve (12) Statler songs.  The event will be held at the Ford Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame.  We’ve heard the advance album and these guys are nothing short of teriffic.  It’s a Cracker Barrel produced product and can only be bought in one of their restaurants.  I think the release date is immediately.  Hope you like it as much as we do.

GRANDSTAFF is back on the road, dates with George Jones and others, with a new name.  It’s now WILSON/FAIRCHILD.  They’re also in the studio in the next few weeks working on a new recording project under the new name.  Visit their website and read all about it.

And the most asked question I’ve been getting for the last six months is: “When is the new novel coming out and what’s it called.”  I can now finally answer both parts of that inquiry.  ONE LANE BRIDGE will be released October 1, 2010.

That’s all the news fit to print at the time.  Life is good in ol’ Virginia!  Hope all of you have a wonderful year.  God bless and stay in touch.

DR  -Friday evening, 1/29/10

If you have visited my website before, you may have noticed I post many of my speaking engagments.  You also may have noticed that I try to delete them immediately after I’ve fulfilled them.  This comes from a lifetime pet peeve of seeing the circus poster still in the drugstore’s window two months after the animals have left town.  Even as a kid, I always wanted to go in and rip them out of the window.  So I try ( and just watch – I’ll probably slip up and leave an old announcement on here longer than I should) to keep the postings up to date.  I usually only post the ones open to the public.

I’m not real sure how I got to being a pulpit supply.  I never intended to be a preacher and am certainly not qualified.  But after my first book came out in 2002, I started getting requests to speak at clubs and booksignings and book conventions, mainly talking about the book and how and why I wrote it.  This was fun and I did only the ones I wanted to and felt comfortable doing.  Then the minister at my home church, Joe Brandon at Olivet Presbyterian, nudged me into turning that book talk into a Sunday morning message.  I’ve been teaching a Sunday School class there for 25 or 30 years (I’ve lost accurate count) and one week when he had to be gone the next Sunday on a family emergency, he said to me, “Would you just tell them a Bible story or something next week in the pulpit?”  Trying to be a responsible Elder, I said, “Sure, anything I can do to help.”  And thus started the pulpit supply.  He continued to ask when he was gone and other ministers asked and pretty soon I was doing more ’sermons’ than book talks.

To be completely honest, I don’t say yes to every request.  I like teaching my Sunday school class each Sunday at Olivet and don’t like being gone a lot.  My son, Langdon, is my assistant teacher and always covers for me.  So call it contentment or just retired, I sometimes say “yes” and sometimes “no thank you”.

But I got a call recently that I just couldn’t refuse.  A lady from the Springhill Presbyterian Church in Springhill, Va asked me to come speak at their morning worship service.  Now Springhill is not even a blip on the map.  There ’s not more than two dozen houses in the little village that the church sits in the heart of.  Lots of farms in the area and lots of good country folks who fill the pews every week.  But the main draw for me was this was where my mother was born.  This was her church.  This is the church she attended as a little girl.  The one she moved from when she came to town and got married.  She and my grandparents and so many loved ones called this little white, steepled church home for so many wonderful years.  And there I was back….home.

I felt her presence when I stood in the old wooden pulpit.  I saw her in the faces of so many of the people who knew her and had stories and comments to share with me about her at the end of the service.  And I did something that Sunday morning I haven’t told anyone about.  Whenever they ask me if I want to choose the hymns on these speaking engagements, I always say yes because that way I can be assured we’ll sing some of the old ones.  And I said yes, I’ll pick them when Springhill asked because I knew what I wanted to do.

I smiled when the congregation stood and we sang the first one, “Revive Us Again”.  And I smiled and got a warm feeling down inside on the next one, “There Shall Be Showers Of Blessing”.  But on the last one, the smile faded and I saw tears in my eyes and felt them on my cheeks when we sang, “Blessed Assurance”.

That was Mom’s favorite.  And I did it all for her.

DR         July 23, 2009   1:20pm

I just got some good and interesting news I thought I’d share.  O Little Town, which had a great Christmas season thanks to all you folks who bought it (and I hope read it), has won an award.   It’s called an ADDY award and it’s given by the American Advertising Federation.  It’s for the book cover and I have to thank all of the David C Cook people for this design as they had much more to do with it than did I.  When I first approved the picture for the dust jacket, I was very much taken by the car which I think is a Nash Rambler.  I’m not sure of the year so I’ll leave that to you auto-pop historians who can tell by the window shapes and door handles what year it was made.  But I must share a funny story about the tree on top.  A good friend of mine, after seeing the cover for the first time, pointed out that the tree was backward on top of the car.  He said if you drove a tenth of a mile it would be on the ground in shambles because of the wind drag.  I looked again and had to agree.  But he has been the only person to notice.  I wouldn’t dare embarrass him by telling you his name but he goes under the indentity of Bryan Kennedy.  But that just goes to show you what you know Bryan.  It won an award!

The next good news came in the form of a nomination.  The ACFW, American Christian Fiction Writers Association gives out awards for books in all kinds of categories.  Well, it appears O LITTLE TOWN has been nominated for Book Of The Year in the Ficton class.  I am humbled and honored by both of these recognitions.

But on to the future.  I get a lot of emails and questions about upcoming projects.  In a previous blog I had stated that two new novels were forthcoming and this brought on the question of “when?”.  Well, now I can answer that a little better.  My next book has already been delivered to the publisher and a date of release has been set for August 2010.  That seems a long way off but it takes nearly a year to get all the things in motion, editing, artwork, printing and etc. before it’s ready to ship.  Plus, this gives O LITTLE TOWN another Christmas season on the shelf before a new book comes on the market.  There is a working title but I’ll share that with you as we get closer to the release date.

Right now I’m working on the next book which will probably be out in 2011.  I can’t share that title with you either because I don’t even know it yet.  Just like writing songs, sometimes the title comes first and sometimes it comes after the song or story is completed.

Hope you’re having a nice spring.  And hope the summer is gentle and warm.  Stay in touch and God bless.

DR

Friday afternoon, 4:05- March 13, 2009

For the past few months I’ve been doing some speaking engagements.  I’m not much interested in traveling anymore so they all have been fairly close to home.  I’ve also been doing some book signings and they haven’t been very close.  But still, I enjoy them all.

The speaking engagements are usually churches and not all of them are posted on this website for varied and sundry reasons.   Same for the booksignings.  Most have been at publishing conventions and are not opened to the public so I figured, “Why confuse the issue?” by advertising something folks can’t get into even if they showed up.  But one thing that has happened recently is something I very much want to share with everyone.

Yesterday, October 1, I had a new book released.  It’s a novel.  My first.  And I’m as happy about this book as I have been about anything for a long time.  It’s set at Christmastime in a small Virginia town I chose to call Mt. Jefferson.  One look at an Old Dominion map will tell you that there is no more a Mt. Jefferson than there is a Statler brother.  I just pulled the name out of the same air we pulled Statler from.  But in reality it’s Staunton, my favorite town and it takes place in 1958, my favorite decade.  If you’re so inclined, I hope you read it and, of course, I hope even more you like it.

Since I’ve been writing books these past six years, I’m always asked when the next one is coming.  That answer has always been rather nebulous as I was never sure if there would even be another one.  But now I can offer a firmer answer to that question.  We’ve just signed a two-book deal with DavidCCook Publishing so there will be more coming for sure.  Just keep watching this site and I’ll try to keep you informed as to when and what.

But right now I guess I’d better get back to work on those two books!

The holidays are upon us so have a fun Halloween, a peaceful Thanksgiving, and a Blessed Merry Christmas!

Thursday, Oct. 2 -6:50pm

DR

We have received so many congratulations from so many good friends from around the globe in the recent days and most have asked about the Medallion Ceremony Sunday night in Nashville and exactly what took place.  I’ll try to recapture it as closely as possible although it felt like a dream sequence even as it was happening.

Tom T. was the first to be inducted for the evening.  It’s customary that four songs of note are sung by four different artists either of your choice or the choice of your organization if you want to be surprised.  Michelle Nixon, Heather Berry and Tony Mabe, and Bobby Bare each sang a song Tom had written and then he closed his portion singing his own, Old Dogs and Children and Watermelon Wine. Ralph Emery, a close friend and fellow Hall of Famer (you have to be in the Hall in order to perform this duty) put the medallion around his neck and then Tom spoke and offered some stories and thanks to all the proper people.

His half of the show.

Next came the Statler half.  Interspersed in the reading of the history of our lives and the group, three of our songs were sung.  Reba McEntire, bless her heart, came as a surprise and sang Flowers on the Wall to us.  Energetic and electric – topped only by the personal comments she made on the years she toured with us as our opening act.  What a sweet lady and good friend!

Daily and Vincent, a new Bluegrass group and the best I’ve ever heard, were next with their version of Do You Know You Are My Sunshine? These guys shine and sparkle and I’m going to see them in concert in a couple of weeks.  I hope you do, too, if they are anywhere close.  Super guys!

Next came the heart tugs for us.  Grandstaff – Harold’s and my sons – Wil and Langdon, performed their brand new, self-penned record simply called The Statler Brothers Song. It’s a salute to us using song titles from our career with some tear-jerking sentiments for four old guys sitting there on the front row trying to hide our emotions.  Pretty soon we just quit trying.  This song is on their new CD Live And Well.  I don’t tell you this so you’ll buy it, but I tell you this because I’d love for you to hear it.  These guys are very special to us as are all our kids.  And speaking of our kids.  They were all there except for one.  20 out of 21 and that’s what made the night really special for us.  Of course, I say kids, but they’re adults now with kids of their own.  The Balsley kids were there – the Fortune kids- the DeWitt kids – and both branches of the Reid kids.  God bless them all.

Then our good friend Brenda Lee, who had also toured extensively with us,  came forward and placed the medallions around each of our necks and we each gave our acceptance speeches.  The audience was full of old friends from the industry who came to see us inducted.  Earl Scruggs, Little Jimmy Dickens, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Sonny James, Emmy Lou Harris, The Jordanaires, Jerry Kennedy, Marshall Grant and so many, many more.

Oh yeah, that left us one song short.  We didn’t tell many people in advance, but for the first time in six (6) years of retirement, we sang I’ll Go To My Grave Loving You as the closing song.  There was magic in the air from the time it all began until and final note was sung and the final tear was dropped.  Our plaque was unveiled revealing the image of all five Statlers – Harold, Phil, Lew, Jimmy and Don.  It was our choice that all five of us be represented as it was all five of us who did whatever it was we did in order to hang in that Hall.

What a night and what a range of emotions and memories it all conjured up.  As we walked the red carpet and did all the interviews along the way, one anonymous arm that stuck a microphone in my face asked a strange and poignant question.  It said, “What do you think Johnny Cash would say if he were here tonight?”  And my answer was as honest and from the heart as I could possibly be.  I said, “I think he would be less surprised than I am because he saw something in us so very early on, before anyone else did, and I think he would say, ’I knew it that first day in Canton, Ohio back in 1964.  That’s why I hired you’.”

And John I’m sure glad you did.  Wish you were here.  Kiss June goodnight for us.

Don Reid – July 2, 2008

What’s On My Mind right now is the upcoming Country Music Hall of Fame induction of the Statler Brothers.  This will happen in Nashville on Sunday night June 29^th of this year.  And what this means to my ‘brothers’ Harold, Phil, Jimmy, Lew and myself is not something I’ll probably be able to capture in this writing.  My concern is whether I’ll even be able to express it at the official ceremony.  I’ll give it a try both places but feel confident only in that I’ll fall short both times.

We got the call back in January.  I was standing in my kitchen at the time and had to sit down rather heavily as my knees refused to accept the news any better than my heart did.  Only difference was my heart was racing and my knees were unable to.

Never had we allowed ourselves to even think about the possibilities of residing in the Hall one day.  Others had mentioned it to us and expressed kindly that we should already be in there but then that’s the kind of things people say to you who love you.  I never took it seriously.  But then the day came when we had to trek to Nashville for the public announcement to the world.  This little press event began early in the morning of February 12 in the enormous hall where all the plaques of all the Hall of Fame members are displayed.  What a sight!

As I walked around looking at and reading each plaque with a cup of coffee in my hand (I had oddly never been there before), I got reacquainted with some old friends and some old heroes.  There against the west wall was Tex Ritter and his history.  One of our first and dearest friends in this business.  Then Roy and Gene.  And, of course, Johnny Cash (the reason we were ever in this business).  June and Mother Maybelle.  Eddy Arnold.  Even good friends who had been contemporaries of ours such as Sonny James and Bill Anderson and Brenda Lee.  And then an executive came up quietly behind me and said, “And over here, Don, is where your plaque will hang.”

“And that’s when I woke up,” to quote a punch line from Tex’s “Hillbilly Heaven”.  I woke up and felt the chills running across my back.  This is the place where our heroes live and now we’ll live here with them.  The reality had finally hit me.  We really were going into the Hall of Fame.

People have asked for years which of our awards have meant the most and I’ve always been very diplomatic with my answer.  But now I think I can be brazenly honest. I’m really looking forward to this one.  On the 29^th of June they’ll hang a medallion around each of our necks and make it official.  We’ll say our insufficient thank yous, the people will applaud politely and then we’ll all adjourn.  But we all won’t go home.  A little piece of us will stay there in that sacred Hall forever and ever with Tex and John and June.  And who knows, when it gets quiet and dark in there late one night we might all do a song together again.

-DSR

May 29, 2008