Notes & Queries – January

Editor’s Note:  Our long-time Notes & Queries writer Walt Saunders, who is now 86 years old and has been involved with this magazine since 1967, was under the weather this month.  We have asked noted bluegrass musician, scholar, entertainer, and historian Gary Reid to step in this month to write the Notes & Queries column.  Thanks Gary! NOTES In reference to a question from the December “Notes & Queries” column about a duo that was billed as Charlie and Mary, the Bluegrass Sweethearts, we’ve been able to unearth some information about them. The husband/wife duo consisted of Charles Woodford “Charlie” Renfrow and Mary Bell Roberts Renfrow. Charlie was born in Butler, Kentucky, about thirty miles south of Cincinnati, on September 17, 1914. Mary was born on July 27, 1922, in Clay County in eastern Kentucky. By the time of the 1940 census, Charlie and Mary were married and living in Cincinnati; Charlie’s occupation was listed as “musician.�