Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Apple Cider Singers

  • wcu_picturing-2871.jp2
  • This 1965 photograph, taken by Asheville Citizen-Times photographer Ewart McKinley Ball, Jr. (1918-1966), shows the Apple Cider Singers of Burnsville, North Carolina playing and singing in Hubert Hayes Memorial Log Cabin. The members shown from left to right are Jerry Clevenger, Amelia Penland, Ramona Penland, and John Penland. Founder and director of the Mountain Youth Jamboree, Hubert H. Hayes (1901-1964) auditioned and directed youth to perform in folk dance, music, and folk and ballad singing. The jamboree was held in the Asheville City Auditorium (now known as Thomas Wolfe Auditorium) from 1948 to 1973, and Hayes’ wife, Leona Trantham Hayes (1913-1989) continued to direct the program after his death in 1964. Hubert Hayes was an author, playwright, and alumni of Duke University.