Wayne Glenn, known to area radio listeners as the “Old Record Collector,” will speak Thursday, July 28, at the next meeting of the Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society in the Historium on the west side of the Gainesville square. The business meeting starts at 9:30 a.m., with the program following at 10 a.m. Everyone is welcome.
Glenn’s 2005 book, “The Ozarks’ Greatest Hits,” salutes the history of Ozarks music and its musicians in words and pictures. It includes profiles of several Ozark Countians.
A photograph in the book portrays the early-1900s Gainesville Brass Band in which Johnny Harlin performed with George Boone, Charlie Burk, Frank and Harry Walker, Averill Harrison, Roy Tate, Everett Luna, Guy Wood and Harry Force. The same photo also hangs in the parlor of the Old Harlin House Cafe.
Glenn’s book profiles other musicians who performed with the wildly popular “Ozarks Jubilee” TV program, broadcast nationally from Springfield in the 1950s.
He has also written several other books, all aimed at his own Christian County heritage.
For decades Glenn has presented two popular weekend shows on KTXR radio in Springfield, “Remember When” on Saturdays and “Nostalgia Time” on Sunday evening. He hasn’t missed a regular weekend show since the broadcasts began in 1977, he said.
Glenn, 64, is a native of the Ozarks; he graduated from Nixa High School in 1965 and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from SMSU (now Missouri State University) in Springfield. He and his wife of 41 years, the former Nira Kane, raised their three children on the farm where Wayne grew up.
After teaching in junior high and high school for 14 years, Glenn joined Meyer Communications in Springfield full time in 1983 after working part-time there beginning in 1977.
He enjoys collecting old phonograph records and other recordings and music and would be happy to talk to area residents about their own collections as time allows.
For more information, contact Sue Ann Jones, 417-679-4641; sueann@ozarkcountytimes.com.
