Recalling Backstage At The 'Opry' When his daughter Libby was growing up, Grand Ole Opry photographer Les Leverett made her stand backstage, on the left side, because over on right side "was where the really dirty jokes were going on." But Libby, now the grown and married author Libby Leverett-Crew, wasn't all that sheltered. She came of age while embraced in the bosom of the Opry family, a close-knit community of artists and supporters who loved a good time and each other. Sensing that she'd been blessed with a unique vantage point on a historic time and marvelous characters, Crew gathered her thoughts and memories into Saturday Night With Daddy at the Opry, a new book from Rutledge Hill Press. It's a brisk, upbeat and photo-filled memoir rooted in experiences with Minnie Pearl, Tex Ritter, Grandpa Jones, Loretta Lynn, John Hartford and others. It was, she recalls, both an ordinary and extraordinary upbringing. "Going to work with my photographer daddy in Nashville's music industry and rubbing elbows with some of the most famous people in the world felt as natural to me as children in Iowa probably feel going into the fields to plant corn with their father," she writes in her introduction. Raised on writing and photography, Leverett-Crew was a born chronicler; she kept her eyes and ears open. In an interview last week, Leverett-Crew said that Minnie Pearl "had the gift of bringing people together." "I think she taught a lot of people it was OK to be a hillbilly and be a society person." The daughter recalled being left under the protection of Ritter, a western music pioneer, while Leverett would complete photo shoots. Ritter had a low, rough voice and a head full of ideas, she recalled. "Before he spoke, he thought for a while, and you could tell it was going to be good." Ritter's sons Tom and the late actor John were childhood friends of Leverett-Crew, and they contributed a foreword to the book. Lynn, perhaps the greatest feminist force in country music history, influenced Leverett-Crew's ideas about what it meant to be a woman. And through Lynn, she said, "I realized someone who had little education but extreme talent could reach their dreams." And even when the company wasn't as good-natured as fiddler John Hartford (at whose house Leverett-Crew met her husband, Larry), Crew says her parents helped her with perspective. "That's where my dad's influence came in," Leverett-Crew said. "Somebody may have a drinking problem or they'd cuss too much. But my dad could always help me see the good side in someone."

Originially Published On Opry.com In January 2004







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