Earthquake Ethel's
Roadhouse Jazz Band
Story furnished by Clarence Crocker
Ethel C. Quinn
Smith, who was born in Glendale, S.C. in May 1926,
and still has many family ties including a half
brother in the community, organized a Dixie jazz
band known as “Earthquake Ethel’s Roadhouse Jazz
Band” some ten years ago in Oregon where she now
lives. Playing New Orleans's style jazz, the band
consisting of eight members play banjos, tubas,
drum, reed, cornet, trombone and also does vocals,
has become quite popular over the past few years and
are engaged from time to time on Alaskan Cruise
Ships.
Ethel also plays the banjo in another local band
called “The Rose City Banjoliers”. Some 14 members play
the banjo, one plays the tuba, one the piano and four
ladies play the washboard.
Ethel Conelia
Quinn Smith, the daughter of Earnest Daniel and Eva
Nellie Crossley Quinn of Glendale, married David
Vern Smith in Oregon and they became the parents of
five children; Wayne, from David’s first marriage,
Steven, David Jr. Kenneth, and Daniel Smith. Their
son, Wayne, was killed in battle in Vietnam in 1970.
David Vern Smith died on September 17, 1996.
Ethel’s
grandparents, Aaron and Nancy Mary Lindsey Crossley,
were the parents of eleven children, all of Glendale. In
e-mail which I received from her, Ethel related how well
she remembered the times she played on bales of cotton
on her grandparent’s porch which had been picked from
the cotton patch on their farm.
Ethel’s father,
Earnest Daniel Quinn, the son of Anderson Daniel and
Zell Vandiver Quinn was born in Glendale in May of
1896.He was first married to Rosa May Crossley. They
were the parents of four children; Ruth May, Robert
Lee, James (J.C.)Crossley and Eugene(Gene)Quinn. (Referenced in Glendale
Palmetto Ramblers story). Rosa May died from
acute appendicitis at the age of 21 in 1921.
After the death of
Rosa May, Ernest married her sister Eva Nellie Crossley,
born April 6, 1905. They became the parents of seven
children; Ethel Conelia, Nellie Margaret, Maybell,
Mildred Lavina, Ernest Jr., Elsie May and Daniel Arthur
Quinn. Eva Nellie Crossley Quinn died February 15,
1998.
Due to the health
of her father, the family had moved to Glencullen,
Oregon in 1930 where Ethel remains. Her father, a
veteran of WW2, died on December 28, 1986. Ethel was
the granddaughter of two prominent Glendale families
of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
We are grateful to
Ethel for supplying the material for this article.
