Stringbean

The murder of Stringbean and Estelle Akeman changed the Grand Ole Opry family forever. It changed Nashville. It stole the innocence from a gentle man who clowned around with a banjo and taught us what country entertainment was all about. 

My husband Marty Lanham and I arrived in Nashville in 1972, a scant year before the Stringbean murders. Marty was working as sideman in Opry Stars Wilma Lee and Stony Cooper’s road band, playing banjo and electric bass. His “day job” was as luthier at Gruhn Guitars. I, too, worked at Gruhn’s, known then as “GTR” (GTR was named for founding owners George Gruhn, Tut Taylor and Randy Wood).  The shop was on 4th Avenue North, literally in the shadow of the Ryman Auditorium.  

At the Grand Ole Opry, Mr. Bell was the backstage guard. We GTR employees were allowed in to hang backstage whenever we wanted. We walked out the front door of GTR, through the tiny parking lot to the rear entrance of the Ryman and the winding stone stepped entrance where the Stars came and went. Those were rich and wonderful days, just before the world changed for Nashville. Before Stringbean and Estelle were murdered. Before the Grand Ole Opry would move to Opryland, and nothing would ever be the same again. Because of Marty’s job as sideman to an Opry act, we were privy to the incredible grief, panic and downright misery that swept through the special family that is the Grand Ole Opry, its members, staff, families and fans.

Stringbean had incredible charisma. Everyone loved him. Guitarist George McCormack worked as sideman for Grandpa Jones, Wilma Lee Cooper, and general “utility man” singing and playing all the parts, able to work with any band on the spot. After leaving Porter Wagoner’s band, McCormick gave his Porter Wagoner “Wagonmasters” stage outfit to Stringbean, who converted it into his trademark comedic stage costume.

Everyone knew there was a security problem for performers on the live broadcast of the GOO on its famous radio station, WSM. Several Opry star’s homes had been burglarized by people listening for their performance on the radio or reading the schedule in the newspaper listings. It was a way to know which houses would be unoccupied and at what time. This was before security systems on private homes. People became wary and distrustful. Folks in Nashville and in Stringbean’s small community of Ridgetop could not imagine such violence against such a beloved persons, a musician and his wife. Road musicians started carrying pistols. Security systems were installed in homes. Backstage rules tightened. The easygoing feeling in the music community was gone.

I am completely against parole for cold blooded killer John Brown. I believe he should spend the rest of his life in prison. I don’t care that his wife is waiting for him, or that she quit drinking and drugs in their mobile home to ready the place for him. I don’t care how good he acts in prison, how many meetings he attends or how many testimonials he has given about how he has changed for the good. He was given sentences that were meant to insure that the public will never again live in fear of this man.

After the murders, in the long sad days before the perpetrators were caught and identified, the fear in the music community was palpable. No one could imagine what monsters could have committed this horrific crime. After the murderers were caught, had names and faces, were tried, convicted and sentenced, we rejoiced that they would never walk free among us, that they would be made to pay for their crime. Stringbean and Estelle were gone, but at least justice would be done.

It is with a profound sense of injustice that I ask everyone who sees this post, to write to the Tennessee Board of Paroles and Pardons, imploring them to keep Stringbean and Estelles’s murderer in prison for the rest of his life, as the Judge in his case intended.  Their address is:

The Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole
220 Blanton Ave.
Nashville, TN  37210
Telephone:  615-741-1150
Email:  bopp.webmail@state.tn.us

Tags: Akeman, brown, Estelle, Grand Ole Opry, John, murder, no, parole, petition, Stringbean