The Legacy Lives On: A Tribute to Loyal Jones (1928-2023)

by Dr. Carol Boggess, Professor Emerita, Mars Hill University

(Pictured above, left to right: Betty Smith, Carol Boggess, and Loyal Jones at the 2019 Lunsford Festival. Photo courtesy of Marc Mullinax.)

“Who really knows Appalachia? If a monument should be erected in honor of anyone who perfectly and selflessly embodies the complex spirit of the southern mountains let it be for Loyal Jones.” *

If you have heard him speak, or read his books, if you have enjoyed his wit and his songs, you will greatly miss Loyal Jones, who passed away on October 7. He was a special man–a mountain man: friendly, generous, humorous, wise, hardworking and very smart. I first met him in the late 1980s, when I came to Mars Hill to teach and he had published his biography of Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Years later when he was working in the Appalachian Center at Berea College and I was doing research in Kentucky, we became friends.

In 2019, he moved from Kentucky back home to Western North Carolina. To be precise, he came to Highland Farms in Black Mountain and lived down the hall from another friend of MHU, ballad-singer, musician, and author Betty Smith. What an opportunity to have two musical legends so close! On October 5, 2019, we brought Betty and Loyal to our campus for the Lunsford Festival. The festival is always more than just a fun event where people enjoy music and good company. Every fall, it provides an opportunity for our community to celebrate our valued musical traditions.

On that particular Saturday, there was a moment at the end of the ballad swap when I was thinking that our guests needed to go back to Black Mountain – surely they were tired. But so many people wanted to talk with them that we could not get on the road. Then I turned to see a shy young man standing near Loyal, waiting quietly to meet the master. Even though I did not hear what they said, the moment was etched in my memory.

This past week when thinking of Loyal, I mentioned his passing to a former student and forever friend, Brandon Johnson. He has been involved with the festival and with mountain music since his early years at Mars Hill. He is now program manager for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area in Asheville. The following is his response to the legacy of Loyal Jones.

Brandon Johnson offers thanks to Loyal Jones:
While a student at Mars Hill University, I did an internship in the Southern Appalachian Archives working with Bascom Lamar Lunsford’s collections. First, Dr. Karen Paar had me read Minstrel of the Appalachians: The Story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford by Loyal Jones. That was when I was learning traditional music and starting to think about the roles it played in community life. Years later, I reread the biography and realized that it had established the foundation for my work and my life. What a gift to return to a moment that shaped who I am now and to understand the link between Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Loyal Jones, and myself.

In 2019, I was on stage at the Lunsford Festival at Mars Hill University playing the music I had discovered in that same place years before, when I looked up and saw Betty Smith and Loyal Jones sitting on a bench in the front row of the crowd. That festival is part of my alma mater, part of Lunsford’s legacy, and part of who I am as a person and a musician. Betty Smith and Loyal right there – two people who had impacted my life in so many ways. All of a sudden, they were watching me contribute my small portion to the living, breathing, music of Appalachia, this place – my place. I will always remember that moment as the truest of honors.

* So writes John Stephenson, (former president of Berea College) as he introduces Appalachian Values, a book of words from Loyal Jones and photos from Warren Brunner.