23/08/2023
Did you know Ola Belle Reed was born and died this week? She was born on August 18, 1916 and passed away on August 16, 2002, just before her 86th birthday. She was raised by a musical family in Lansing, NC, before moving north and eventually settling in Maryland.
Ola Belle and her family were part of a great migratory movement in America that took place between the Great Depression and the years after World War II. Sometimes dubbed the "Hillbilly Highway," many Appalachian families moved north looking for work as the farming and mining industries began to mechanize.
Ola Belle put her considerable skill as a songwriter and banjo player to work performing regularly on the radio and at social gatherings. In the early 1950s, she and her brother Alex opened the New River Ranch music park, a stage that saw some of the biggest stars in country music history. Ola Belle Reed's music helped create a sense of home for many displaced Appalachians, and her legacy as a legendary pioneering musician lives on.
Join us on Monday, August 28 at 6:30 for a film screening of "I've Endured": The Music and Legacy of Ola Belle Reed" followed by a Q&A with scholar and filmmaker Bill Shewbridge.
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Join us on Monday, August 28, 6:30 p.m. for a screening of “I’ve Endured”: The Music and Legacy of Ola Belle Reed, a 45-minute documentary exploring the life and work of nationally recognized bluegrass and old-time musician Ola Belle Campbell Reed (1916-2002), followed by a virtual Q&A with th...
