Rockabilly Highway Homecoming

McNairy County Mayor, Jai Templeton; Bethel Springs Mayor, Norma Smith and Selmer Mayor David Robinson, have signed an official proclamation naming next week "Rockabilly Highway Homecoming" throughout the county. September 17 marks the 55th anniversary of the famed meeting between Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins at a Presley performance in Bethel Springs, TN. Many county residents fondly recall the event but admit that they were unaware they were witnessing music history at the time. Perkins' would later note in his memoirs and various interviews that meeting Presley at Bethel Springs was a turning point in his career and it was listed as an historic American cultural event in Jay Warner's 2004 book, On This Day in Music History.

It is hoped that the proclamation will further awareness about the significance of this historic date as well as other facets of McNairy County's rich musical heritage. Significant attention has already been focused on McNairy County's Rockabilly roots with the 2008 designation of Highway 45 as Rockabilly Highway and the 2009 addition of the Rockabilly Highway Mural and Revival in downtown Selmer. Bethel Springs is said to be considering several other ideas that would preserve the memory of this historic occasion.

The official Rockabilly Highway Homecoming proclamation reads:

Whereas, American cultural icons Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins met for the first time in Bethel Springs, McNairy County, Tennessee on September 17, 1954; and Whereas, this meeting is universally acknowledged as a significant event in the history of American music; and Whereas, Tennessee House Bill #2489 and Senate Bill #2546 have designated state highway forty five throughout it's length in McNairy County, "Rockabilly Highway" in an effort to call attention to the musical heritage of Southwest Tennessee; and Whereas, Bethel Springs, Selmer and other McNairy County communities played an important role in the development of Rockabilly Music and are geographically situated on Rockabilly Highway, and Whereas, the people of Bethel Springs, Selmer and McNairy County Tennessee value their rich musical heritage and desire to preserve and promote it in meaningful ways; and Whereas, Thursday, September 17, 2009 marks the fifty fifth anniversary of the aforementioned Presley and Perkins meeting; Now Therefore We, McNairy County Mayor, Jai Templeton; Bethel Springs Mayor, Norma Smith and Selmer Mayor, David Robinson do hereby proclaim the week of September 17, from this day forward as Rockabilly Highway Homecoming in Bethel Springs, Selmer and McNairy County Tennessee and call upon the people thereof to observe this date with all appropriate programs, activities and ceremonies. In Witness Thereof, we have hereunto set our hands this eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine.

Jai Templeton, County Mayor

Norma Smith, Bethel Springs Mayor

David Robinson, Selmer Mayor