North Florida Music Hall of Fame

Nashville-based guitar virtuoso and session player. Recorded million-selling “Sugar Foot Rag” in 1949, later performed on sessions with Elvis Presley (1958-1961), Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins, Everly Brothers, Boots Randolph, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, and Hank Williams. Garland had been a jazz player and had brought a serious jazz sensibility to country [...]

Disc jockey and country singer from Northwest Texas; met Mae Axton while she was in Texas doing a promo tour. Axton helped land Reeves a slot at Jacksonville country station WPDQ. Reeves also sang on Axton’s demo of “Heartbreak Hotel”; interestingly, Elvis Presley imitated Reeves’ demo rendition note-for-note. It was Elvis imitating Reeves imitating Presley, [...]

World-renowned alto-saxophonist, jazz artist and session player. Began career in Chicago with Charlie Mingus, Ira Sullivan, Louie Bellson, Yusef Lateef, Sonny Stitt and Ben Sidran. Recorded own albums for Exodus, Cadet, Argo, Vanguard and Delos. Also a popular session player, performed on pop and R&B records with Fontella Bass and Maurice White (of Earth Wind [...]

Connie Haines was born Yvonne Jasme in Savannah, Ga., in 1921, Haines moved with her family to Jacksonville as a child. At age 9, known as Yvonne Marie, she became a regular on local NBC radio affiliate WJAX in the 1930s. At 17, she moved to New York, where she worked alongside Frank Sinatra in [...]

Formed in 1994, this Jacksonville “skate-punk” quartet, signed with Santa Cruz, Calif.- based Honest Don’s (a division of Fat Wreck Chords) in 2000. Despite the tragic death of drummer Scott Shad in 2001, the group carried on. However, the band was dropped after two albums, and guitarist Pete Moseley left to take the bass position [...]

Jacksonville-born jazz bassist and cellist; moved to NYC in mid-1950s; worked with Duke Ellington, Cannonball Adderly, Oscar Peterson, Cedar Walton, Illinois Jaquet, Thelonious Monk, and others; also led own big band. Died 1981.

Owen Masters was born in Jacksonville, 1935, the singing son of Johnnie and Lucille Masters, he joined the Masters Family revue in 1947 at age 12. Later spun off as countrified teen idol — basically the model from which Ricky Nelson was patterned a few years later. Died in 1997.

Seminal doo-wop group led by Jacksonville bass singer Jimmie Ricks, signed to National Records in early 1950s.

Noted gospel singer from Jacksonville, Vermeytta Royster joined The Clara Ward Singers as lead vocalist in 1958.

Singer/comedienne/character actress, Dorothy Shay was born Dorothy Sims, 1923, Jacksonville. Moved to NYC, where she launched a career as the “Park Avenue Hillbilly.” A regular on Spike Jones’ radio show in 1947; also had a No. 4 hit on Columbia with “Feudin’, Fussin’ and Fightin,’” from the 1947 musical, Laffing Room Only. Sold over three [...]

Jacksonville jazz trumpeter, moved to L.A. in early 1950s; worked with Art Pepper, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Mel Torme, Rosemary Clooney, Gary Burton and many others, as well as own band. Sometime standup comic, also actor in short-lived TV series What Makes Sammy Run?

Jacksonville singer-songwriter, co-wrote numerous successful songs, including “Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean” for Ruth Brown. Most remembered for co-writing the English lyric to Sinatra’s 1966 No. 1 single, “Strangers in the Night” (it had already been an instrumental hit in Germany for Bert Kaempfert). Some of Singleton’s other songs were recorded by Pat Boone, [...]