A ceremony will be held on Friday, May 31st at 10 a.m. to honor Louise Scruggs with a “Tennessee Music Pathways” Marker. The ceremony will take place on the grounds of the Historic Smith County Courthouse on Main Street in Carthage.
Louise Certain Scruggs was a pivotal figure in popularizing bluegrass music, managing her husband Earl Scruggs and his partner Lester Flatt from 1956 to 1969 through their rise to popularity. A native of Smith County’s Grant community near Carthage, Tennessee, Louise moved to Nashville after graduating high school to pursue an accounting career. She married Scruggs in 1948 and played a crucial role in the success of Flatt & Scruggs, recognizing the potential of bluegrass music to reach broader audiences. Louise booked Earl at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, which propelled their fame. She managed the Earl Scruggs Revue after Flatt & Scruggs split in 1969, always striving for higher achievements. Louise passed away in 2006 and was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2010.
Launched by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development in 2018, Tennessee Music Pathways is an online planning guide that connects visitors to the state’s rich musical heritage at tnmusicpathways.com. From the largest cities to the smallest communities, Tennessee Music Pathways stretches across all 95 counties and features hundreds of landmarks from the seven genres of music that call Tennessee home.
