736 PRICE, KENNY
Advertisement for Jacob Price’s lumber yard.
who favored policies in the best interests of the African American community. Th is political position later benefited Covington’s African American community when William L. Grant, a white politician, asked Price and other African American community leaders for their support. Grant was an influential businessman and Covington city council member seeking the Democratic nomination for the office of Kenton Co. representative in the Kentucky legislature. Grant proposed that if the African American voters supported him for office, he would have the city charter of Covington amended to provide for a public school for black children. William Grant received the nomination, and a new Covington city charter soon provided for an African American school. Price’s political acumen had been demonstrated. In 1882 Price owned and operated a lumberyard and sheds in the area of Fourth St. and Madison Ave. The sheds occupied an area 60 by 90 feet and had a storage capacity of a half million board feet of lumber. He continued in the lumber business until 1894. In 1899 Price was named president of the Colored Laborers’ Union. Price died in 1923 at age 84 in Covington and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate. On January 26, 1939, the Covington Municipal Housing Commission named the new housing complex for blacks in honor of Price, stating that “no Negro citizen is better known than the late Jacob Price.” “Colored Labor Union,” KE, March 5, 1899, 3. “Headquarters for Lumber,” DC, November 28, 1882, 2. “Housing Project to Be Named Latonia Terrace: Negro Settlement to Be Known as ‘Jacob Price Homes’ in Honor of Leader, Board Reports,” KP, January 26, 1939, 1.
“Negro Pastor Dies,” KP, March 2, 1923, 1. “Organized First Negro Church,” KTS, March 2, 1923, 37. “School Opened Oct 14 in Basement of Methodist Church on Madison St. between 2 & 3,” CJ, October 19, 1872, 3.
Theodore H. H. Harris
PRICE, KENNY (b. Covington, Ky., May 27, 1931; d. Florence, Ky., August 4, 1987). Fondly nicknamed the “Round Mound of Sound” because of his six-foot-three, 300-pound frame, country musician James Kenny Price sang equally well in three registers—tenor, baritone, and bass. Although he made an impression with fans in the Greater Cincinnati region on the regionally televised program Midwestern Hayride, he gained his national fame from appearances on the popular Hee Haw television variety show. Kenny was born at 1311 Holman Ave. in Covington in 1931, and his family moved in the mid1930s to a farm near Florence, Ky., where he spent most of his youth. Country music became a part of his life at an early age. He received his first guitar for Christmas from his parents at age five—it was an auditorium-sized Sears & Roebuck Silverstone, and he played it with other family musicians on the farm. Both parents, William and Mary Clayton Nunnelley Price, sang in their church’s choir. Kenny attended Florence Elementary School, where he performed in a jamboree-style school play in the first grade. Price appeared in local musical talent shows, winning prizes with his commanding voice and guitar accompaniment. At age 14 he made his radio debut playing guitar on Northern Kentucky’s WZIP Radio. During his teen years, his family moved frequently. Price played in the school band
at his first high school, in the Boone Co. area. He graduated in 1949 from Morgan High School in Pendleton Co., where he also played basketball for the school team. Price’s professional music career started in the road houses and honky-tonks of Northern Kentucky during the late 1940s. He later frequently reminisced that this was a time when country music was socially out of favor. However, he played folk and country music at local clubs for square dances in Boone Co., where country music was popu lar. In 1949 he appeared on a WCPO-TV country music show, Midday Merry-Go-Round, in Cincinnati. In 1952, while Price was serving in the U.S. Army, he performed with the Horace Heidt USO show in Korea. Upon military discharge, he married Donna G. Stewart in 1954. They met at the Kresge fi ve-and- dime store in Covington, where she worked as a clerk. In addition to singing and playing guitar, Price also mastered the drums, the banjo, and the bass fiddle. In 1954 his long association with WLW tele vision in Cincinnati began. He first appeared on the Midwestern Hayride, which became one of the longestrunning country music programs on broadcast tele vision. He also sang lead for a local band, the Hometowners, with Freddy Langdon, Jay Neas, and Buddy Ross. In 1957 the band won a tele vision competition in New York City on the Arthur Godfrey Show. During the 1959– 60 school year, Price studied music, theater, and broadcasting at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. After many years as a regular cast member, in 1970 he was appointed host of the Midwestern Hayride and continued through the end of its long run in 1972. After a few guest appearances in 1973, Price became a regular cast member of the syndicated Nashville tele vision show Hee Haw. Price composed more than 1,000 songs. Of his many recordings, 34 became chart single records.
Kenny Price, mid-1950s.