In the 1950s and ’60s, it wasn’t uncommon to hear the voice of Terry Lee Jenkins on the radio — she created many ad jingles for Bill Meeks’ Production Advertising Merchandising Service (PAMS) in Dallas, Texas.
In the ’60s, Meeks started the “My Home Town” project — a 1:30 standard tune pitched to local stations to create lyrics for, which Jenkins would then sing. In Evansville, WIKY took advantage of the pitch and created the “Evansville, My Home Town” record, with a sponsorship from the Evansville Junior Chamber Commerce. On the flip side, another track “I Found A Home in Big ‘E’” is included as well.
Several of these 45 vinyl records recently were sold at a local estate sale, and Heather Vaught happily grabbed an extra copy purchased by her friend Kristen Gubbins.
“I have a small collection of Evansville memorabilia, so I wanted the record for that,” says Vaught. “But we always have music playing in the store (River City Coffee + Goods), so we plan to digitize the songs and play it there.”
There are thought to be more than 100 different variations of the “My Home Town” song written by stations all over the country.
“They are very cool and very positive lyrics,” says Vaught. “Both tracks are very cute.”
