The Four Legends Monument

Known as “Jonesey” by his friends, Kennedy was born in the Mud Rivera area of Muhlenberg County. His mother, Alice Dearmond Jones, played many instruments including guitar. It was from her that around the age of eight Kennedy was taught the thumb and finger style of guitar playing. Over the next several years, he frequently played for dances and gatherings around Dunmor, Penrod, and later Cleaton, a coal mining community to which the family had moved. This unique guitar sound was a hit, and, in 1918, Kennedy purchased a thumbpick to ease the pain of a blistered thumb. AND THUMB PICKING WAS BORN. Among his accomplishments Kennedy Jones is probably best known for having written Cannonball Rag, widely recognized as the thumbpickers anthem and later recorded by Merle Travis. He later moved frim Cleaton to Chicago to Cincinnati, where he is buried in Bridgetown Cemetery. Four Legends Monument was dedicated on the second anniversary of Kennedy’s death in 1992. 

Moses (Mose) Rager was born in Ohio County in 1911 but lived all of his adult life in Drakesboro, from 1931 until his death, just across the street from the park which bears his name and is home to Four Legends Monument. Throughout his life, Mose worked as a barber, a Carpenter, and a coal miner. As a boy, he strummed his father’s banjo before learning to play guitar around the age of 9. At age 14, Mose went to Cleaton to see the man that played cords up and down the neck of a guitar. It was there that he met Kennedy Jones, the person he credits for teaching him the thumb and finger guitar method, as style that shaped his career. In 1973, Mose and Merle were selected to represent Kentucky at Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C., with another invitation to that event as part of the bicentennial celebration of our country. Mose Rager is buried alongside his wife, Laverda, Ebenezer Cemetery.  

Isaac “Ike” Everly, one of seven children, was born in Muhlenberg County in 1908. Like many other Countians at the time, Ike started working in the coal mines by the time he was twelve years old. Ike’s father played fiddle, was likely among his earliest musical influences, and encouraged Ike to pursue a career in music. At around age sixteen, he got his first guitar. Ike Everly’s guitar roots are much the same as those of his friend, Mose rager, learning the thumbpicking style of guitar playing from Kennedy Jones. Before the era of Rock and Roll, Ike , Charlie, and Leonard (The Original Everly Brothers) thrilled audiences with their vocal and instrumental abilities. Seeking opportunities in music and having a desire to leave a life of coal mining in Kentucky. Ike moved his family and his wife, Margaret, to preform. Soon, their son Don and Phil would be a regular part  of the Everly Family Program. Ike and Margaret appeared on various television programs including the Archie Campbell Show. The traditional country style music performed by Ike during this period began to decline due to an upswing in rock and roll music for which his sons would rise to the top of the charts as The Everly Brothers. Ike Died in Nashville on October 22,1975. He is buried on Rose Hill Cemetery in Central City. 

Merle Travis was born in Rosewood, moved along with his family to Ebenezer as a boy, and attended school at Drakesboro. Merle learned at an early age to play his father’s banjo. According to Merle, his father’s guitar was made by his brother, Taylor Travis. Merle learned the thumbpicking style of guitar playing from Mose Rager with help from Ike Everly and gave credit to them for his success upon his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In his early career, Merle performed in a group called The Drifting Pioneers. Early, in his career he befriended Grandpa Jones, with whom he both performed and recorded. As a friend of Gene Autry, Merle performed in his first motion picture in the 1940’s. During his career, he appeared in as many as ninety motion pictures. Among Merle’s best-known songs are Sixteen Tons, Dark As A Dungeon, Nine Pound Hammer, and I am A Pilgrim. In 1956, over twelve thousand people attended the annual Merle Travis Day Celebration at Ebenezer, and a monument was unveiled in his honor. In 1976, Merle and Mose Rager were invited to perform during the bicentennial celebration of the United States. These old friends played on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of Festival of American Folklife (the second time they performed at this event) and demonstrated to the nation the unique musical contribution that originated in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Merle’s list of Musical accomplishments is as lengthy as his hit recordings. Merle took the Muhlenberg County style of thumbpicking to audiences all over the world through radio, recordings, and movies. He even designed the modern solid body guitar manufactured by the Fender Corporation. Merle died at his home in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in 1983 and was returned to Muhlenberg County for a memorial service and burial at Ebenezer Cemetery.