^ "NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1983"."Ray Hicks, Who Told Yarns Older Than America, Dies at 80".
^ a b Martin, Douglas (April 27, 2003).In 1991, he received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award. In 1983, Hicks received a National Heritage Fellowship, which is a lifetime honor given to master folk and traditional artists. He was featured in The New Yorker magazine and in some documentaries. Hicks was well known for his unique brogue and was even studied by a linguist from England. After this performance, he was invited back many times in the years that followed. Īs a featured performer, Hicks took the stage at the first National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee on October 7, 1973. Some examples of Jack Tales are "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Jack and the Giant Killer". Jack tales consist of fairy tale elements with intertwined Southern Appalachian culture. Hicks was best known for his stories known as Jack Tales. It was the first time he told stories in a public setting. In 1951, Hicks was invited to visit a teacher's classroom at Cove Creek Elementary School. To earn extra money, Hicks also foraged various plants and materials from the forest, a skill he had learned as a boy. Career Īs an adult, he worked as a farmer and mechanic. Hicks died of prostate cancer at a nursing home in Boone, North Carolina on April 20, 2003. They raised their five children in a cabin built by Ray's grandfather. The couple's daily lives in their Beech Mountain home embodied the traditional culture and practices of their community. Rena died in 1975, leaving Ray the Hicks' home-place and child raising duties for his younger siblings. Ray was drafted into the army, but was rejected because he had broken his arm. The family got by selling carpets handwoven by Rena and dulcimers crafted by Nathan as well as other work.
The Hicks family lived in conditions of extreme poverty in the relatively isolated mountains of North Carolina near Banner Elk. Ray's cousin, Frank Proffitt, was also a talented musician, known for his performance of the ballad "Tom Dooley" among others. Nathan played banjo and dulcimer and encouraged Ray to sing along with him. Ray was in the eighth generation of family storytellers. Storytelling and ballad-singing were a big part of life with the Hicks family.
He had Cherokee ancestry, traced through his great-grandmother. He was the fourth of 11 children of Nathan and Rena Hicks. Ray Hicks was born on Augin Banner Elk, North Carolina. He was a recipient of a 1983 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. He was particularly known for the telling of Jack Tales. Lenard Ray Hicks (Aug– April 20, 2003) was an Appalachian storyteller who lived his entire life on Beech Mountain, North Carolina.
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