John would have been 80 years old today. John's wife, Marie Hartford died on John's birthday, the same year that John died (2001). John died in June of 2001 and Marie followed just months later. She went to the ER for pneumonia and was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died at the hospital just a week later. Marie at one time worked for the Glaser Brothers and, she was a songwriter in her own right. She composed a number of songs with Conway Twitty.
Every year, beginning in 1980, John and Marie Hartford hosted three-day parties at their home. They celebrated John's birthday, their anniversary, Christmas and the New Year. Here's one of the invitations that John drew to send out for the event. Anyone who was anyone in Nashville, passed through those doors for those parties. A who's who of well known musicians.
I read this note recently from a guy who attended one of these parties, Eddie Allen:
I didn't know John or Marie except as a fan, but an acquaintance was close to the family and shared this photo, as well as a blurry one that was taken of John and Marie at Christmas, in their home in Madison, Tennessee.I have been to a lot of parties. I was at this one once. It wasn't like any I'd been to before or any I've been to since. You could go out to the living room and listen to John playing music with Bill Monroe and Benny Martin and anybody who just finished up their set at the Opry or you could go into a bedroom where Norman Blake was putting new strings on an old guitar and visit with him or you could go out to the kitchen where Marie was cooking red beans and rice and cornbread and eat the best food you ever had. I sat at the table talking to a pretty woman who asked me how I knew John and Marie and I told her I was just a regular guy who was a fan of John's and I met him at a show and we became friends and he invited me. I asked her the same question and she said, "Me, too." Their hospitality was enormous.
It occurred to me that there might be members here who've played with John, or maybe personally knew John and Marie. Posting this for John Hartford fans, and to say Happy Birthday, John
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