Luke Thompson, bluegrass musician, bandleader, instrument builder and MC, passed away on June 12, 2019, in a Zachary Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Zachary, Louisiana, where he had been for the past few months. He was 91 years old.
He was born on January 8, 1928, in Natalbany, Louisiana, a sawmill town about a half an hour east of Baton Rouge. His family, rich in Scottish-English-Irish ancestry, had migrated south from the North Carolina and Virginia region.
Thompson was a bluegrass musician – playing the guitar, fiddle, and banjo, but is best known for his mastery of the mandolin – and a renowned instrument maker. He built mandolins played by Buck White and Mark O’Conner, among others.
He led his own band, the Green Valley Cut-Ups (changed from the Green Valley Boys in 1968) from the late 1940s.
Among the highlights of his career are playing on the Louisiana Hayride-KWKH, Shreveport, Louisiana, as well as at events such as the Louisiana Folk Arts Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Piney Woods Opry; recording with Byron Berline, Allen Shelton and Travis Stewart, having releases in his own Hammond record company; organizing, with Bill Monroe, the first bluegrass festival in Louisiana, in 1968; co-founding the Old South Jamboree, Walker, Louisiana; working as MC at Bill Monroe’s bluegrass festivals at Bean Blossom for 10 years; building mandolins for Gibson Guitar Company, as well as doing warranty work for them; an appearance in the film of Tennessee Williams’ play Last of the Mobile Hot Shots; and in 1963 replacing a sick Bill Monroe as front man with a line-up of the Blue Grass Boys, including Del McCoury (guitar), Bill Keith (banjo), and Enoch Sullivan (fiddle).
Funeral arrangements:
Relatives and friends are invited to join the family for the visitation at Baker Funeral Home in Baker, Louisiana, on Friday, June 14, 2019, from 10:00 a.m. until the funeral service at 12:00 p.m. Burial will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, also in Baker.
A career overview and remembrance will follow in due course.
R.I.P. Luke Thompson
