Mason and Country Music Star Roy Acuff was born on this day in 1903 in the East Tennessee town of Maynardville. He was later crowned the king of country music. Roy Acuff was born on September 15, 1903 in Maynardville, Tennessee. , the third of five children. He played semi-professional baseball, but a sunstroke in 1929 and a nervous breakdown in 1930 ended his aspirations to play for the New York Yankees. He then turned his attention to his father's fiddle and began playing traveling medicine show. He toured the Southern United States. He eventually formed a band "The Crazy Tennesseans". In 1936, he recorded a cover of the traditional song "The Great Speckled Bird". His performance of it in his Grand Ole Opry debut was not well received. Acuff became a regular on the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, forming a backing band called the Smoky Mountain Boys, led by friend and Dobro player Bashful Brother Oswald.
Acuff released several singles in the 1940s such as The Wreck on the Highway, Beneath That Lonely Mound of Clay and The Precious Jewel. He later formed a music publishing venture with Chicago songwriter Fred Rose. Hank Williams, the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison, among others, all initially signed with Acuff-Rose Music.
Acuff had a brief affair with politics, losing a run for the office of Governor of Tennessee as a Republican in 1948. Acuff later campaigned in 1970 for his friend Tex Ritter in his campaign for GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in Tennessee.
Acuff spent most of the 1950s and 1960s touring constantly, becoming one of the hottest tickets in country music. By the 1970s Acuff performed almost exclusively with the Grand Ole Opry, at Opryland USA, greatly legitimizing it as the top institution in country music.
A popular legend is that Japanese troops during World War II would enter battle yelling, "To hell with Roy Acuff." Roy Acuff is distantly related to Amy Acuff.
In 1962, Roy Acuff was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. For his contribution to the recording industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located on 1541 Vine St. After being initiated as an Entered Apprentice at the East Nashville Masonic Lodge, in 1943, he was raised to Master Mason in 1944. He was made a 33rd Degree Mason on 21 October 1985. He entered the Celestial Lodge on November 23, 1992.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) Twenty-seventh President of the United States, 1909-1913. He was born on September 15, 1857 at Cincinnati, Ohio, son of Alphonso Taft, He was a graduate of Yale University in 1878 and Cincinnati Law School in 1880. He practiced law at Cincinnati, 1883-1887. Served as assistant county solicitor, judge of superior court, solicitor general of United.States and was U.S. circuit judge from 1892-1900. Was president of the U.S. Philippine Commission, 1900-1901, and first civil governor of the Philippines, 1901 until 1904. Twice declined appointments from President Theodore Roosevelt to be a Justice on the U. S. Supreme Court. He was Secretary of War in cabinet of Theodore Roosevelt, 1904-1908. he taught law at Yale, 1913-1921. He served as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1921 thru 1930. He had expressed a desire to be a Freemason a year before his presidential candidacy. On February 18, 1909, he was made a Mason "at sight" within the body of Kilwinning Lodge No. 365, Cincinnati, Ohio, by Grand Master Charles S. Hoskinson. On this occasion he said: "I am glad to be here, and to be a Mason; it does me good to feel the thrill that comes from recognizing on all hands the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. . . . Many years ago my father stood in the same place and expressed his love and admiration of the order." Both his father and half-brother, Charles P. Taft, were members of Kilwinning Lodge No. 365 and his father served as master. Taft affiliated with the lodge on April 14, 1909. He made many visitations in later years. Some are as follows: Temple Lodge No. 32, Washington, D.C. on April 22, 1909; Aztlan Lodge No. 1, Prescott, Ariz., Oct. 12, 1909; Naval Lodge No. 4, Washington, D.C., April 7, 1910; American Union Lodge No. 1, Marietta, Ohio, June 15, He entered the Celestial Lodge on March 08, 1930 in Washington, D.C.