You can pretty much expect some traditional country music to be played at the celebration of life service this week for local TV pioneer A.J. “Fargo” Pope, an inductee into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame.
Pope, who died at 90 in North Augusta on Sunday, was one of Augusta’s early television personalities as co-star of the Mary & Fargo Show airing shortly after WRDW went on the air in early 1954.
Friends, fans and family members will gather at 3 p.m. Thursday at Hatcher Funeral Home and Cremation Service, 3464 Jefferson Davis Highway, to celebrate the life of this unique individual who entertained thousands of local music fans for several decades.
The family also is receiving friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. Appearing with Pope and his wife, Mary, on their “live” WRDW broadcast programs and at area stage concerts was future Rock and Roll and Country Music Association Hall of Famer Brenda Lee.
The Augusta Chronicle in September 1955 reported Mary and Fargo would be playing at the Barnwell, S.C., elementary school auditorium with WRDW’s Peach Blossom Special TV show cast that also included The Dixie Peaches and Lee.
His traditional, double-neck country guitar playing and smooth voice were heard in the bands “Peanut Faircloth and the Hot Roasted Hillbillies,” John Benefield’s Country Gentleman group and later the band Crossroads. Pope was born in Florida and grew up in Eastman, Ga. His mother, who sang in a church choir, died when he was 9, and his father, who played banjo, died when he was 20.
He joined the Dixie Playboys Band in Dublin, Ga., in 1947 where he met and married his first wife, Mary. They moved to Augusta in late 1950 and he began playing in the band of Peanut Faircloth. Faircloth is credited with talking Grand Ole Opry star Red Foley into letting young Brenda Lee sing on Foley’s show in Bell Auditorium.
Foley was so impressed that he invited Lee on his national TV show Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Mo., which led to Lee’s contract with Decca/MCA Records and millions of hit recordings sold. Mary and Fargo were regular entertainers at the Starlight Club on Atomic Road in North Augusta where they performed on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in 1963 and other local show places.
Fargo’s obituary also noted that he worked as salvage manager for Revco Warehouse and enjoyed shooting pool, wetting a hook and loving fried potatoes and pecan sandies.
COPYRIGHT THE AUGUSTA CHRONCICLE - January 24, 2018
Pope and the Dixie Playboys made regular appearances on WMLT Radio from 1947 to 1949.
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