New music foundation Shreveport to give scholarships museum | Food & Entertainment

There’s a new group in Shreveport that wants to honor the city’s musical talent – past, present and future.

Music-related scholarships for high school students, a Shreveport music history museum, and an artists-in-residence program are all in the plans for the John Gale Horton Foundation in Shreveport.

The foundation was created by Executive Director Jake Donaldson and named for Johnny Horton, who performed regularly on the Louisiana Hayride radio program in Shreveport. His music dominated country and pop charts in the late 1950s and he won a Grammy in 1960 for “The Battle of New Orleans.” 

Local musician and Shreveport music history advocate Winston Hall is one of the foundation board members. Hall told The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate that unlike other successful country artists of his time, Johnny never left Shreveport to join the Grand Ole Opry. Instead, he remained in Shreveport where he lived with his wife, Billie Jean Horton, and raised a family.  

Former Shreveport Mayor Clyde Fant proclaimed that June 20, 1959 was Johnny Horton Day, in recognition that “…this local resident, in public appearances and in nationwide TV shows, has brought favorable publicity to the City of Shreveport, not only through his ability to sing, but by his clean living and gentlemanly conduct.”

Donaldson first and foremost wanted to create a scholarship to invest in the next generation of artists. 

“I’m thinking about the people that came from here who had a chance. Lead Belly, who became wildly successful in a time when it did not make any sense for somebody from his upbringing to be as successful as he was. I think he is a unique case, but people like Van Cliburn, who had natural talent and he had the ability to, practice his skills and really build them up…And I was sitting there thinking, how many Lead Bellies and Van Cliburns and Elvises and people are there who have this skill but didn’t have the means to focus on it? People who had to grow up and do something else, because it (music) just wasn’t an option.

“And I got to thinking, I’d like to be able to do something where I can give these kids a chance to, you know, chase that dream. So they maybe they do blow up and go off and be huge like somebody.”

Scholarship

The scholarship is named after the late Father Kenneth Wayne Paul who served more than forty years as Rector of The Church of the Holy Cross in Shreveport, where Donaldson currently serves as parish administrator. The scholarship describes Paul as “a teacher, a pastor, and a fearless advocate for the dignity of every person. He believed in the power of music, not only as worship or expression, but as healing.”

“Kenneth was all about giving people a chance who otherwise wouldn’t have one. And that really resonated, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I want to give people a chance who otherwise wouldn’t have one.”

The foundation has a broad definition of career paths eligible for the scholarship, to include not only musicians but music composition, musical theory, sound engineering, and music as a form of therapy. 

Artists in residence

The current plan is that a student with a scholarship will return to Shreveport for a two-year stint after graduation, receive a monthly stipend and live on-site, and produce a certain amount of writing or recording music or work as a sound engineer, depending on the student’s area of expertise.

The foundation is looking for a building now, where they can house offices, a recording studio, artist residences, and a music history museum and archives. They are also going to create a recording label. 

“Our goal is to have enough income from other sources that when these kids leave us, they own the rights to their own music, and that’s something that not many artists have the ability to do.”

While they are free to take their music and go, he hopes they will choose to stay in the area. “This is a great place, and we overshadow ourselves. It’s time that we focus on us and we try to do what’s best for us and make this a place that people want to move to and pursue careers here, and we’ve done it before, I don’t see why we can’t do it again.”

Museum

After the foundation was created, Donaldson said they met with the manager of the Billie Jean Horton estate for their blessing in using his name. He said the manager asked Billie Jean, “and how did she word it? She said, ‘It’s about damn time that somebody is doing something.’ And that meant the world to us, and it’s really because of Billie Jean and the estate that the museum is going to be a possibility.” She is allowing them to use her saved memorabilia in the museum. “There are mountains of things that people probably haven’t ever seen,” Donaldson said.

The foundation will have a booth at this year’s Red River Revel, where many items of memorabilia will be on display.

Also, for the museum, they are looking for Shreveport or regional music memorabilia like concert tickets or programs or photographs to showcase, which he said is tax-deductible. They hope you won’t throw away those things if you find them in a garage or attic. He said Johnny Horton and Johnny Cash started a fishing lure company, so keep an eye out for those as well.

The John Gale Horton Foundation, while named after Horton, will honor all of Shreveport’s musical story and legacy in all genres of music. 

Fundraiser

The John Gale Horton Foundation will hold a music-filled fundraiser on what would be Johnny Horton’s 101st birthday, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on April 30 at Hurricane Alley in Bossier City. Live music will feature Preston Barrett & The Haze. Visit this page for more information and tickets.