Louise Scruggs

Louise Scruggs. . A pivotal behind-the-scenes player in popularizing bluegrass music, Louise Scruggs was the wife of banjo player and bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs. She managed Earl and his partner, Lester Flatt, from 1956 until they broke up in 1969. Early on, she saw the potential for bluegrass to broaden its audience, "if it wasn't for Louise, I'd have been out of this business a long time ago," Earl said in 2004. "She made me feel that we had an organization." , Anne Louise Certain was born on Feb. 17, 1927, in Smith County's Grant community. Although she was raised on a farm, her ambition was to work in an office. Her grandmother played organ and guitar. Her grandfather took her to the "Grand Ole Opry" several times. By the time Louise graduated from Watertown High School in 1945, her widowed grandmother was living in Nashville, and Louise joined her there to look for accounting jobs. , On Dec. 14, 1946, she went to the Opry and saw Scruggs performing with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. Scruggs was playing his innovative rolling three-finger banjo. After he'd joined Monroe the previous year, they created the style that became known as bluegrass. Louise was introduced to Scruggs, and they were married on April 18, 1948. , A few weeks before the wedding, Scruggs and Monroe's vocalist-guitarist Lester Flatt went out on their own. As Flatt and Scruggs, they relocated first to Danville, Virginia; then Bristol, Tennessee; then , in 1949, Knoxville, Tennessee. The Scruggs' first child, Gary, was born in Knoxville in May 1949. , Sponsored by Martha White Flour, Flatt and Scruggs moved to Nashville in 1953 to perform on WSM's morning schedule. The Scruggs' second child, Randy, was born in Nashville in August 1953, and their third son, Steve, in February 1958. Over Monroe's objections, Flatt and Scruggs began appearing on the "Grand Ole Opry" in 1955. A Martha White-sponsored television show further elevated their popularity. , Starting in 1955, Louise assumed the management of Flatt and Scruggs. Bluegrass music was popular in the Southeast, but the emergence of rock 'n' roll and then the Nashville Sound curtailed its airtime. In response, Louise booked Earl alone at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959. That appearance spurred campus and television bookings for Flatt and Scruggs. Although bluegrass music originated in 1946, it was viewed as more akin to folk than then-current country music, and Louise was among the first to recognize its potential outside its traditional audience. , Louise helped program concept albums for Flatt and Scruggs adjunct to their singles. Their LPs included Folk Songs of Our Land, Hard Travelin', and At Vanderbilt University. She differentiated Flatt and Scruggs' albums by commissioning cover paintings by Thomas Allen. For some, she wrote the liner notes. She also formed a music publishing company to publish the duo's original songs and their adaptations of traditional songs. , Earl, supported by Louise and their sons, wanted to edge Flatt and Scruggs' repertoire into a more contemporary vein, but Flatt resisted. The duo split in 1969, in conjunction with his sons, Earl organized the Earl Scruggs Revue, Louise booked and managed them. She also coordinated Earl's late career appearances and albums. Her credo was, "I was always trying to figure out a way we could get to a higher level." , Louise Certain Scruggs died in Nashville on Feb. 2, 2006, six years before her husband. In 2010, she was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.