The Wilson Post
LEBANON WEATHER

Oliver hangs up his dancing shoes




 

 

Saturday night, May 14, Lebanon native Eddie Oliver did what he’s done for exactly 50 years. He hit the stage dancing when the curtain went up on the Grand Ole Opry. But this show was different, because when the curtain closed on Saturday night’s show, Oliver hung up his dancing shoes, retiring from the Opry a half-century, to the day, from when he started.

Oliver took his final bow before a standing ovation after Riders in the Sky’s “Too Slim” (Tim Langford) paused to tell the crowd what they’d just seen – a little history in the making. Oliver responded in kind, saying “I thought then I was part of something special. So I figured I’d better stick around and see how it turned out. That was 50 years ago tonight.”

Oliver started dancing at the Opry in 1966, at just 13 years old, when the late Ralph Sloan needed a substitute one night. He never left. Sloan, who founded the Lebanon-based Tennessee Travelers, took his team to the Opry in 1952 – with Oliver’s father no less – after they were discovered by WSM disc jockey and television personality John McDonald at a local fair. The group became an Opry mainstay. After Sloan passed away in 1980, his brother Melvin took over the team, which continued to perform weekly on the Opry as the Melvin Sloan Dancers. When the younger Sloan retired in 2002, Oliver was still there, staying on with the group, now called the Grand Ole Opry Square Dancers.

 

 

Sloan was there Saturday to see Oliver’s last performance. Sloan says he and Oliver have been “very, very close over all these years. And his dad, two of his uncles and his aunt were all dancing with my brother when the team started with the Opry in 1952.

“Saturday night was so special. All the respect everyone showed for him, and all of the dancers who came to see his last show, it was just precious,” Sloan said.

“The Grand Ole Opry is 90 years old, and Eddie has been there 50 of those years,” said teammate and WSM Radio personality Marcia Campbell. “He’s dedicated most of his life to square dancing, our official state dance. That’s history.”

 

 

“His is a milestone that will probably never be reached by a dancer again,” said dancer Larry Chunn. “So many dancers have come and gone since he started.”

Oliver says he expects get a little more time on the golf course with his Saturday afternoons freed up, but his dance partner of nearly 20 years, Lebanon resident Jessica Fain says she’s not sure if her car can find its way to the Opry.

“I’ve hitched a ride with him for two decades. Saturdays just won’t be the same. I hope he never asks me to pay him back for all that gas. And I can certainly never repay him for his friendship.”

 

 

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