Jimmie Rodgers Museum

Honoring "The Father of Country Music"

collection

rodgers_inset Jimmie Rodgers, known professionally as the “Singing Brakeman” and “America’s Blue Yodeler,” was in the first class of inductees honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame and is widely known as “The Father of Country Music.” From many diverse elements—the traditional folk music of his southern upbringing, early jazz, stage-show yodeling, the work chants of Black railroad section crews and, most importantly, African American blues—he forged a lasting musical style that made him immensely popular during his own lifetime and a major influence on generations of country artists to come. Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, Bill Monroe, Dolly Parton, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, and Tanya Tucker are only some of the dozens of stars who have acknowledged Rodgers’s impact on their music.

Country Music Hall of Fame

jrm_state egyptian ighland Park in Meridian, Mississippi, houses the Jimmie Rodgers Museum honoring the Meridian-born country music legend and displaying the original guitar of the man known as the "Singing Brakeman." Other memorabilia of his life and career are included, as well as various railroad equipment from the turn of the 20th century. Rodger's brief railroading career, sidelined by health issues, included work as a brakeman on the New Orleans & Northwestern (later Southern Railway). In addition to the museum building itself, built in 1976, outside memorials honor the country star and a vintage steam locomotive is displayed on a small section of railroad track — both symbolizing Meridian's strong ties to railroading industry and culture. The locomotive is a 1917 Baldwin steamer from the Susquehanna & New York Railroad, later used by the Meridian & Bigbee Railroad, who donated it to the city in 1953 as a memorial to all deceased railroaders. The locomotive was moved to the park in 1970.