Museum adds to Founder’s Fest events
Bob Tiffin and Scott Kennedy show off an ornament picturing the Tiffin Welcome Center, which is located at the entrance to the Tiffin Motorhome plant in Red Bay. The new ornament will be $15.
The Red Bay Museum will be open for Red Bay’s Founder’s Fest celebration Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. There will be no admission charge for that day, but donations will be accepted.
The museum, which has been open for ten years, is constantly changing and adding to the exhibits. The Red Bay Civitan Club is the sponsor of the museum. Many of Red Bay’s landmarks have been recreated inside the museum with the actual items including the Hotel Red Bay lobby, soda fountain, dry good and/or general merchandize store, theater, early bank, medical clinic, churches and many more.
The museum also has many Red Bay-related items for sale, including the Red Bay history book, “One Hundred Years of Memories” by former Congressman Carl Elliott. In honor of the book being printed 20 years ago, the book originally priced at $55 dollars will be available for that day only at $40. The book is a collection of oral interviews conducted by Elliott and many old photographs pertaining to Red Bay’s history.
Also available that day will be the new ornament depicting a landmark, a project the Civitan club: the Tiffin Welcome Center, which is located at the entrance to the Tiffin Motorhome plant in Red Bay. The new ornament will be $15, and other ornaments from years past will be available to purchase at lower prices.
The end of the tour of the museum winds up with a display on country music singer Tammy Wynette, who was born, raised and went to school in Mississippi but called Red Bay her hometown, since it was the closest town she lived to where she shopped, visited relatives and went to the doctor. Many of her personal and professional items have been donated by friends, fans and family members. Mostly-recently acquired by the museum is a gold album for her first greatest hit album.
George Jones and Tammy Wynette had one daughter, Georgette, and after she was born, George had a plaque to commemorate her birth that hung above their bed. This plaque has been in storage for over 20 years and was just recently shown, for the first time, at a fan gathering in Nashville. Georgette Jones has loaned this piece to the Red Bay Museum for everyone to see.
