By KANDACE MCCOY

kandace.mccoy@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — It took one glimpse of a maroon corduroy sports jacket for Mt. Vernon native Ron Page to decide what he wanted in life. That glimpse not only sent Page into a successful gospel music career, but also helped him earn his way into the Nashville Hall of Fame.

This weekend, Page will return to the King City for his Mt. Vernon Township High School class reunion as well as a concert at Park Avenue Baptist Church Sunday morning.

A 1955 graduate of MVTHS, Page says his singing career took off as a young man about to enter high school.

“I was a member of Second Baptist Church (Mt. Vernon) and they had a boys quartet that sang in church there,” he recalled. “They all had these maroon corduroy sports coats — those were the prettiest sports coats I ever saw in my life.”

Page said he wanted that coat “so bad” and wanted to sing in the quartet. When he asked how he could get one, he was told if he wanted to sing in the group, he had to take music in high school.

“So I went to MVTHS and signed up for all the music and chorus classes I could get. And I got my sports coat,” he said with a chuckle.

Page said he not only enjoyed his time as a student at MVTHS, but was also inspired by then music teacher William Beckemeyer.

“He was the music guru over there and quite a guy,” Page remarked. “He kept me inspired those four years as I continued to sing and develop musically.”

One of the first groups Page was in was the Gospel Four Quartet, which had a radio program on WMIX, he said. Page sang baritone with the group and performed on weekends at concerts and churches within 100 mile radius of Mt. Vernon.

“That’s where I got bit by the quartet singing bug,” he explained. “I sang with a group through high school and upon graduation I heard they were starting a quartet in Nashville and were auditioning members for what became the Oak Ridge Quartet — the forerunners of the Oak Ridge Boys.”

Page nailed the job and moved to Nashville in late 1956.

“And it just went on from there,” he said. “I sang with Oak Ridge for six years, from 1956 to 1962 — I used to say jokingly at concerts that I quit them because they weren’t going anywhere.”

In 1960, he also started hosting his own television show for a local CBS affiliate in Nashville. In 1962, members of the Chuck Wagon Gang — founded by D.P. Carter and not to be confused with the June Carter Cash family — approached Page about joining the group.

“They said Dad Carter was having to leave for health reasons and would I consider singing with them,” he said. “I joined the gang and sang with them on and off until 1980 — about 18 years — and left to do other things. About 2003, the group came to me again and asked if I would join ‘today’s gang.’ And I sang with them until 2006.”

Page said though he loved singing, traveling got to be too much for him as he grew older. Now 72, he is the entertainment editor for the Branson Daily Independent in Branson, Mo., and still does “concert work such as Sunday at Park Avenue.”

“I do the old songs, the ones people remember,” he said. “My mission is to keep the old songs alive and keep singing them so kids today can hear them.”

Page said he fell in love with old gospel songs when he first joined the Chuck Wagon Gang.

“It was very simple — we did a lot of songs, such as Albert E. Brumley who wrote ‘I’ll Fly Away’ and just singing them night after night — it was simple early Americana-type music. It just gets a hold of you after a while. It’s just something that became a part of me for those 18 years and when I retired I thought, ‘No one is singing those songs anymore,’” he said. “Bill Gaither had such an impact when he started his business of presenting the old timers of singing the old songs. You go to one of these concerts today and they’ll do the new songs — but when they cut down on one of those old songs, the audience just comes alive.”

Page says he’s anxious to visit with former classmates this weekend and will be performing in his old group, The Cavaliers, during his class reunion.

“It will be a treat,” he said. “I hope to see my classmates at the reunion and at the church.”

In addition to singing with the Oak Ridge Quartet and Chuck Wagon Gang, Page also sang with and managed the Swanee River Boys and the Rangers Trio, information states. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Nashville along with the current Oak Ridge Boys. In 2006, he was the recipient of the Pioneer Award presented by Nashville Music City Showcase.

For more information about the concert you may contact Park Avenue Baptist Church at 242-1882.