Train Whistles and Country Crooners

A northbound Amtrak train pulls into Union Station in Meridian, Miss. (pop. 39,968),  and immediately a conductor begins unloading - and loading - passengers and baggage. After a brief stop, the engineer blows the whistle, alerting everyone to clear the tracks before the train departs on its journey form New Orleans to New York City.

"That’s a signal for the smokers to get on board," says Mick Nussbaum, director of the Meridian Railroad Museum, standing on Union Station’s second floor overlooking the downtown rail yard. "He’ll give two more blasts and he’s leaving."

Meridian has been a railroad stop since the first track was laid in Lauderdale County in 1855. Through the years, the railroad has provided jobs for townspeople, inspired the songs of country music’s first superstar, Jimmie Rodgers, and fascinated rail fans like Nussbaum, whose hobby is photographing the trains that rumble through town.

"We’re the best-kept secret for rail fans; not many places have what we have," says Nussbaum, 40, motioning to the 1906 depot, which was rebuilt in 1997 and today serves as a transportation center, accommodating hundreds of train and bus passengers each day.

The railroad boomed and the population swelled in the early 1900s,

making Meridian the largest city in Mississippi. Today, the city is the state’s sixth largest and the railroad continues to be an economic force, employing 1,900 people.

"Meridian has always been a railroad town," says Fonda Rush, a Meridian native whose 23-year-old son, Elliott, helps maintain the rails. "If you’ve lived in Meridian very long, you’ve probably had someone in your family work for the railroad. That’s been a family tradition."

Another Meridian tradition is fostering and discovering musical talent.

Jimmie Rodgers, Meridian’s most famous railroad man, went on to become the Father of Country Music. Born in nearby Pine Springs in 1897, Rodgers grew up in Meridian, working on the railroad, and plucking and strumming his guitar. The Singing Brakeman, as Rodgers was called, combined the rhythms of black railroad workers with the yodels of Western cowboys and became a national sensation, selling more than 10 million records between 1927 and 1933. Among his biggest songs were T for Texas, Waiting for a Train, In the Jail House Now and My Carolina Sunshine Girl.

"His music related to a lot of the working class during the Depression," Rush says. "His music was a release for them and their problems. He felt their pain."

Rodgers, who died of tuberculosis in 1933 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Meridian, influenced a long list of country, bluegrass and rock artists, including Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard, Bill Monroe and Jerry Lee Lewis.

"All the artists respect Jimmie Rodgers and what he did," says Betty Lou Jones, president of the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation, whose mission is to perpetuate the memory and history of Rodgers, and pay tribute to his contributions to American music.

Rodgers is honored at Meridian’s Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Museum, which houses memorabilia and artifacts from Rodgers’ railroad and singing careers, including his 1928 Martin guitar, railroad trunk and cowboy boots, personal correspondence, records and sheet music.

Meridian also hosts Jimmie Rodgers Days each spring. This year’s event, scheduled April 28-30, features a yodeling contest, barbecue cookoff, car show and musical entertainment in Singing Brakeman Park. During the Jimmie Rodgers Talent Contest, aspiring performers will try to follow in the footsteps of Elvis Presley, who finished second in the inaugural contest in 1953 and went on to become the King of Rock ’n’ Roll.

"If we’re in the music business, we definitely want to be country singers," says Cary Laine, 19, of Deer Park, Ala., who won the adult competition last year with singing partner Kimberly Gayle Odom.

"It’s a lifelong dream," adds Odom, 21.

As long as singers dream and train whistles blow, the legacy of Jimmie Rodgers and the railroad will live on in Meridian.

Visit www.visitmeridian.com or www.jimmierodgers.com, or call (601) 482-8001 for more information.

Stuart Englert is American Profile's Senior Editor.

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