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    • Nov 29, 1917
    Merle Travis is born in Rosewood, Kentucky. He becomes an influential guitarist, records several late-1940s hits, and writes "Sixteen Tons" and "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)," earning membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame
    Nov 18, 1919
    Mary Johnson is born in Beech Creek, Kentucky. At age 17, she becomes the first wife of future guitar great Merle Travis
    Mar 1, 1937
    Nineteen-year-old Merle Travis works a show with Clayton McMichen in Columbus, Ohio, leaving mining work behind in Kentucky for a career as a musician
    Apr 12, 1937
    Merle Travis marries Mary Johnson in Cincinnati. Clayton McMichen takes the role of Travis' father at the wedding, and fiddler Bert Layne, of McMichen's band the Georgia Wildcats, gives the bride away
    Feb 21, 1939
    Laura Etta Travis, the mother of Country Music Hall of Famer Merle Travis, dies
    Mar 25, 1939
    Merle and Mary Travis have a daughter, Patricia Adeline Travis, in Cincinnati
    Dec 20, 1942
    Merle Travis' father, William Robert Travis, dies
    Sep 1, 1943
    Grandpa Jones and Merle Travis record the first music for Syd Nathan's new label, King Records, in Dayton, Ohio. They use assumed names to hide their identity from radio station WLW, which has them under contract
    Nov 15, 1943
    Sydney Nathan's King Records releases its first two singles, with the artists using pseudonyms: Merle Travis and Grandpa Jones are billed as The Sheppard Brothers, and a Travis solo disc is credited to Bob McCarthy
    Feb 29, 1944
    Actor/comedian Smiley Burnette has lunch in Cincinnati with WLW performer Merle Travis, where he convinces Travis that he should live in California. The guitarist leaves for the west coast the next day
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