The Clue
The clue, "How many miles was Reno from Vevay, Indiana?" was not intended to be too difficult, but a respite from the difficulty of the other clues. After posting clues to this one, I've heard from many that they knew the answer.
(credit Cincinnati Enquirer)
I'm going to take a little liberty with this notable. If you google Jack Reno, you get a multitude of his resume bullet items and accomplishments. I wanted to share a slightly different version and found one article written by his wife Beverly. I will let her words stand in for mine, with only a few extra comments.
Jack Reno was born November 30, 1935, in Bloomfield, Iowa. From an early age on his family's farm, it's said he dreamt of becoming a country crooner. We pick up Beverley Reno's words from an June 2016 featured article on Country Air Check.
He started out as a five-year-old picking a ukulele on his family's farm in Iowa. He loved country music. As he got older, he pursued Country radio stations. In 1951 he got in with KCOG-AM/Centerville, IA and pretty soon, he was singing on that radio station, and then they asked him to be an announcer. He was 16 years old.
He did some travelling with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys and had his radio show in Centerville until he graduated from high school. Moving to Yankton, SD he had a singing radio show on WNAX and, along with Red Foley and Brenda Lee, sang on the Ozark Jubilee. He was also doing a little Country radio show as an announcer. That's when he recorded the songs "The Moon Won't Tell" and "Wonder Drug."
A friend told him about a job at KCKN-AM/Kansas City, so he moved there and became an announcer. After about a year, he got a letter that said he was going to be drafted so he joined the Army with an MOS in radio communications. He was in from 1960-63 and served as the disc jockey for Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri. He also sang at Club Seven. That's when I met him, and we were married in 1961.
So just to add to her story here. She's clearly just wanting the attention on Jack here, but she fails to mention that she was actually his superior at the base. She was a First Lieutenant as an Army nurse and he as a Sargent. He was dared to try and date an officer by his buddies. I guess it turned out okay. :)
Around that time a friend called and said he had a song for him. So Jack went to Nashville and recorded "Blue." It made the charts and was played all over Chicago. He did real well with that one.
We spent our honeymoon in Nashville, and then he and Dick Biondi were chosen to be the disc jockeys in the movie "From Nashville With Music". They went to Las Vegas to film the movie.
From Ft. Leonard Wood, we went to Clinton, IL and he was an announcer on WHOW-AM. We weren't there very long before we went to KWNT-AM/Davenport, IA, and then to Lubbock, TX, which was a big deal for him. Waylon Jennings had just left KLLL, and Jack worked with Sky Corbin and his brother.
They brought him in as PD at WXCL/Peoria, IL next and big things started to happen. There were other country singers there. Jack Barlow and a guy named Cal Shrum, who was in a bunch of western movies – the three of them were called the "Country Gentlemen."
Jack recorded a jingle called "Big Big Big Deal" for a store in Nashville. Buddy Killen at Tree Publishing heard it and he called Jack to come in and record. That's where he did his first album. At the same time, Movie Mirror magazine had a nationwide contest on the fans' favorite DJ, with Moon Mullins, Ralph Emery and Ted Cramer in the running, but Jack won.
In 1969 we moved to Cincinnati. He'd been hired to be the PD for a new station that was going to switch from Rock to Country – WSAI-AM. Jack was chosen by another magazine as the "Most Listened-To Disc Jockey" across the nation, which was voted on by fans. A few years later he recorded "Hitchin' A Ride."
In 1975 he joined WLW-AM for a 50kW clear channel all-night show. It was known as the Jack Reno Interstate 7 show. He talked to the fishermen, the shrimp people down in Texas and his mom in Iowa on that show. He won the CMA award for Large Market Disc Jockey. He also won the 1977 Truck Drivers Country Music Award. While he was there, he got sick.
Jack shows his gritty side here, because he continued to work in some capacity, even though she said he was sick. It was during this time in 1978 that "Vevay, Indiana" was recorded and released by Derby Town Records.
It was written by a Switzerland County citizen, Tim Shackleford. Mr. Shackleford deserves more words here than I can provide him because it's not everyday, that an everyday fella gets his music recorded. But, there's not much out there on Mr. Shackleford, and I wonder if it's because that's how he wanted it. I know there are everyday folks out there with great ideas and great works, but they don't toot horns and would rather stay behind the scenes. I can respect that, and that's where I'll leave it. If Mr. Shackleford ever saw fit to fill in the blanks of this story, I know there are many of us out there that would like to know what inspired the song and how it came to be in front of Jack Reno.
(credit Billboard Magazine Feb 17, 1979)
Mr. Reno was scheduled to provide a concert and likely perform the song after a SC Pacers / Milan Indians basketball game on January 27, 1979, but had to be rescheduled because of snow. It was rescheduled for February 17, 1979. Anybody out there remember the concert? Anybody remember him receiving a key? Not a Dufour's Key, but a key to the city?
Back to Beverly's words.
After battling Hodgkin's Disease, he came back to radio, started up a little station in Florence, KY, and recorded a little more. He consulted for a couple of other radio stations – Bismarck, ND and Bowling Green, KY. He quit radio altogether in 1999 and became a sheriff in Boone County, KY. He passed in 2008 from brain cancer.
So, just to clarify a little here. He was hired by Boone County Sheriff Elmer Wright in 1989. He served as a sheriff's deputy out of the county courthouse in Burlington, Ky, retiring in 1999. Her recollection above may have been referencing that he retired from radio and the sheriff's department in 1999.
His mentors were Ted Cramer and Bruce Nelson, and he was most proud of his CMA Award. He wasn't expecting that. Jack was also an emcee at Fan Fair in Nashville.
He was one of the early supporters of people like Donna Fargo. He used to interview people coming through like Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, and they'd stop for the all-night show to promote their records. He'd listen and then put them on the air.
Charity involvement and helping the community were important to him. He rode an elephant in a parade one time for the school for the blind and said the elephant's hair was so sharp he didn't think he'd ever be the same individual. He got to play baseball on the Reds' field for charity and was a little league coach for his two boys. Country show fundraisers helped the sheriff's department, and he'd put them on, emcee and sing a couple of songs.
(credit Country Air Check) - Dolly Parton & Jack Reno
(credit Country Air Check) - Jack Reno & Johnny Paycheck
I'm a little perplexed as Beverly closes her article, that she's made no mention of his 6 appearances at the Grande Ole Opry or Jack sharing stages with folks like Waylon Jennings, Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton and Brenda Lee.
Then I read how she finishes her story, and maybe I'm not so perplexed. Maybe I'm not surprised he also would want to record a simple song about an everyday guy headed to Vevay, Indiana.
He would have been so humble about being inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame. He would have said there are a lot of wonderful disc jockeys, but he would be very proud. He loved his country-western listeners dearly. After work he'd come home and talk about so-and-so down in New Orleans and all these people he talked to during the night. A lot of them were troubled people, and he would just let them talk. If they needed help, he'd make sure they knew the hotline. Jack enjoyed the country people. He came from the farm, and he never ever forgot the little guy. He was very much into making sure that somebody who didn't have as much as others felt just as important as anybody else. Even when he was singing, he always made a point to pay attention to people. He was all about the common, ordinary man.
The clue, "How many miles was Reno from Vevay, Indiana?" was not intended to be too difficult, but a respite from the difficulty of the other clues. After posting clues to this one, I've heard from many that they knew the answer.
The location of Key#17 could have been placed in only a few spots, just drive in all directions and go 14 miles. I just happened to pick the Harry Bond sign on Hwy 156, 14 miles from Vevay, because it was in the direction of Florence.