Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Gil Michel, Nick Rogers, Mark Blount, Hal Easter, Carolyn Walton, and Karen Easter

  • wcu_picturing-2869.jp2
  • This 1965 photograph shows performers of the Mountain Youth Jamboree in Hubert Hayes Memorial Log Cabin. Children identified in this photograph from left to right: Gil Michel, Nick Rogers, Mark Blount, Hal Easter, Carolyn Walton, and Karen Easter. 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.