A host of Mississippians – including several Meridian natives – were honored for their contributions to the state’s music history Thursday night.

The Jimmie Rodgers Music Foundation hosted the event, which was held at the main office of the Peavey Electronics Corporation in Meridian. The ceremony served to honor Mississippi’s deep musical heritage and to embrace its future, said Betty Lou Jones, president of the Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival.

Those saluted include:

•Jimmie Rodgers, who died in 1933, is known as “The Father of Country Music.”

•Elsie McWilliams, a songwriter who worked with Rodgers, was the first woman to make a career as a country music songwriter.

•George Soulé, a Meridian native, is a songwriter, singer, drummer, record producer and studio engineer whose songs were recorded by Percy Sledge, the Temptations and Bobby Womack.

•Vasti Jackson is a blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer who has worked with Z. Z. Hill, Johnnie Taylor, Denise LaSalle, Little Milton and Bobby Bland. 

•Hartley Peavey is founder and CEO of Peavey Electronics Corporation, which he founded in Meridian in 1964. Peavey is known as an innovator in the musical equipment industry.

•Jimmy Pasquale is known as the guitarist for The Flares, one of the first rock and roll bands from Meridian. He later had a successful career as a Nashville songwriter, penning tunes for Gene Watson and Ray Charles.

• Meridian native Chris Ethridge was a member of pioneering country-rock group the Flying Burrito Brothers and worked with host of other artists, including Willie Nelson.

•Meridian native Paul Davis, who died in 2008, was best known for his radio hits and solo career, which started in 1970 and encompassed soul, country and pop music.

•Steve Forbert, a Meridian native, is a singer-songwriter who has had an active career since the late 1970s.

•Tupelo native Elvis Presley is often referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll”

• Meridian native George Cummings is known from his work with Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, the group he founded in 1968.

•Sam Cooke, who was born in Clarksdale, had 30 U.S. top 40 hits between 1957 and 1964, plus three after his death in 1964. Some of those hits include “You Send Me”, “A Change Is Gonna Come”, and “Twistin’ the Night Away.”

•Paul Ott, often called “Mississippi’s outdoors ambassador” is known for the patriotic message in his work.

•Mississippi John Hurt was a country blues singer and guitarist from Avalon.

•Bukka White was an influential Delta blues guitarist and singer.

•Al Wilson was a soul singer known for the hit, “Show and Tell”.

•David and the Giants are a long-running Christian rock band based in Laurel.

•Jerry Lee Lewis is a singer and pianist, often described as “rock & roll’s first great wild man.”

•Bobbie Gentry, is a singer-songwriter known as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material.

•Indianola native B.B King was known as the “King of the Blues”

•Tammy Wynette was one of country music’s best-known artists and biggest-selling female singers.

Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival

Friday schedule

6 p.m. Gates open

6:30 – 7:30 Cary Hudson and the Piney Wood Players

7:30 – 8:30 Vasti Jackson

8:30 – 10:00 Cowboy Mouth

Saturday

noon: Gates open

1-2 p.m. Talent Contest

2-3 p.m. Lydia Loveless

3- 4 p.m. Charlie Worsham

4 – 5 p.m. Brandy Clark

5 -6 p.m Hayes Carll

6-7 p.m. Chris Knight

7- 8:30 p.m. Reckless Kelly

8:30 – 10 p.m. Wynonna & the Big Noise