Editing Roy Acuff (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Maynardville-acuff-marker-tn2.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Historical marker along Maynardville Highway (TN-33) in Maynardville, Tennessee, near where Acuff was born]]
Acuff was born on September 15, 1903<ref name="Who's Who">{{cite book|title=Who Was Who in America, with World Notables, v. 10: 1989–1993|year=1993|publisher=Marquis Who's Who |location=New Providence, N.J.|isbn=0-8379-0220-7|page=2|chapter=Acuff, Roy Claxton}}</ref> in [[Maynardville, Tennessee]],<ref name="Harvard Bio">{{cite book|editor-last=Randel|editor-first=Don Michael|title=The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music|year=1996|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=0-674-37299-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand/page/3 3]|chapter=Acuff, Roy (Claxton)|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand/page/3}}</ref> to Ida Florence (née Carr) and Simon E. Neill Acuff, the third of their five children. Acuff was of English ancestry, and his ancestors came to North America during the [[Thirteen Colonies|colonial era]], settling in the mountains of [[Virginia]] and [[the Carolinas]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I7NYutp7s-oC&q=%22After+several+hundred+years+of+living+in+England+the+Acuffs+emigrated+to+the+New+World+and+settled+in+the+mountains+of+Virginia+and+the+Carolinas.%22&pg=PA3|title=Roy Acuff, the Smoky Mountain Boy|year=1978|page=3|publisher=Pelican Publishing|isbn=9781455611522|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>Roy Acuff, the Smoky Mountain Boy by Pelican Publishing, pg. 3</ref> The Acuffs were a fairly prominent family in [[Union County, Tennessee|Union County]]. Roy's paternal grandfather, Coram Acuff, had been a [[Tennessee Senate|Tennessee state senator]], and his maternal grandfather was a local physician. Roy's father was an accomplished fiddler and a [[Baptist]] preacher, his mother was proficient on the piano, and during Roy's early years the Acuff house was a popular place for local gatherings. At such gatherings, Roy would often amuse people by balancing farm tools on his chin. He also learned to play the harmonica and [[Jew's harp|jaw harp]] at an early age.<ref name=larkin>Larkin, Colin, ed. (2006). "Roy Acuff." ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Vol. 1''. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.&nbsp;38–39.</ref><ref name=goo />

In 1919, the Acuff family relocated to [[Fountain City, Tennessee|Fountain City]] (now a neighborhood of [[Knoxville, Tennessee|Knoxville]]), a few miles south of Maynardville.<ref name=larkin /> Roy attended [[Central High School (Knoxville, Tennessee)|Central High School]], where he sang in the school chapel's choir and performed in "every play they had."<ref name=wolfe1>Green, Doug; Wolfe, Charles, eds. "[http://www.lynnpoint.com/st_james/oldtimemusic_knoxville.pdf Roy Acuff Recalls His Early Days in Knoxville] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607103019/http://www.lynnpoint.com/st_james/oldtimemusic_knoxville.pdf |date=2013-06-07 }}." ''Old Time Music'', vol. 12 (Spring 1974), p. 21. Large PDF file.</ref> His primary passion, however, was athletics. He was a three-sport standout at Central, and after graduating in 1925, was offered a scholarship to [[Carson-Newman University]], but turned it down. He played with several small baseball clubs around Knoxville, worked at odd jobs, and occasionally boxed.<ref name=rumble />

In 1929, Acuff tried out for the [[Tennessee Smokies|Knoxville Smokies]], a minor-league baseball team then affiliated with the [[History of the New York Giants (baseball)|New York Giants]].<ref name=goo>Hurst, Jack (1975). ''Nashville's Grand Ole Opry''. New York: H. N. Abrams. pp. 27–28, 37, 108–111, 119–122, 138–139, 303.</ref><ref name=wolfe1 /> A series of collapses in spring training following a [[sunstroke]], however, ended his baseball career. The effects left him ill for several years, and he suffered a [[nervous breakdown]] in 1930.<ref name=larkin /> "I couldn't stand any sunshine at all," he later recalled.<ref name=wolfe1 /> While recovering, Acuff began to hone his fiddle skills, often playing on the family's front porch after the sun went down. His father gave him several records of regionally renowned fiddlers, such as [[Fiddlin' John Carson]] and [[Gid Tanner]], which were important influences on his early style.<ref name=wolfe1 />