'So she did': Larry Cantrell has big dreams for Tammy Wynette Legacy Center in Tremont
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Jan. 18—TREMONT — A stroll through the Tammy Wynette Legacy Center in Tremont takes visitors through her journey from local hairdresser to the First Lady of Country Music.
Taking the center from an idea to reality though, was a journey of its own.
"You've got to believe in what you can do," said Larry Cantrell, who serves as the president of the Tammy Wynette Legacy Center Board of Directors. It's a sentiment that brought all of the various pieces of the center together, and it's the wisdom Cantrell, who's spent the past 18 months helping channel resources into the center to help it flourish, hopes to impart to anyone who visits.
Like Wynette, the 74-year-old is a Tremont native himself, having spent the first eight years of his life in the small town at the northeast border of Mississippi and Alabama before his family moved to Zion, Illinois, where he graduated high school.
He returned to Mississippi to attend college at Itawamba Community College and Mississippi State University for undergraduate studies before moving on to Mississippi College to earn a law degree.
No matter where he went, Tremont always felt like home.
"It was just a mystic thing," Cantrell said. "To get to look forward to summer, to come back to be in grandma and grandpa's house. So I've always thought Tremont was just the greatest place on Earth."
A lot of change in a short time
When Cantrell first walked into the building, the lobby area — which now features two murals, the gates to Wynette's Nashville home, a "pickin' corner" area with six pews where visitors can sit to watch Wynette's performances or pick up a guitar (and soon other instruments like banjo or violin) and play the tunes themselves — was virtually empty.
The center includes a museum section with photos and information about Wynette's life, along with relics like a piano she played when she was young, a dining set and a dress she wore.
The focal point of the room is a wall of vinyl records, all featuring Wynette. The display shows the range, depth and breadth of the country music legend's career.
A restaurant, Kelly's Kitchen, opened inside the center less than two weeks ago. Its grand opening will be held Jan. 28 at 4 p.m.
The center also features a gift shop, a recording studio and rooms where music lessons are taught.
There are currently two stages. One sits in the lobby area for music students to rehearse and perform; another, for larger performances, is located inside the restaurant.
Nearly all of these elements took shape after Cantrell took on his role at the center. But after all of the pieces were put in place, the next step was attracting visitors — particularly people who may be traveling to Elvis Presley's birthplace in Tupelo, less than 30 miles away.
Two signs have been placed on I-22 to point people towards the center. Taking Exit 113, followed by a couple of turns, will take visitors straight to the Tammy Wynette Legacy Center.
Plans for the future
All of this didn't come about simply by Cantrell's work, but through a concentrated community effort. Cantrell likens himself to a "turtle on top of the fence post," because it couldn't get there on its own. It had to have some help.
During the planning stages for the center, the foundation was laid by Johnny Crane and Buster Davis, Cantrell said, and the rest of the vision was realized by the Tammy Wynette Legacy Center Board of Directors: Mark Holly, Summer Nichols, Fred Lynch, Lance Stewart, Tony Hooper, Agnes Wilson and Tony Wilson.
Cantrell and the center's board of directors have big dreams for the rest of the facility. They plan to turn more than 10,000 square feet of storage space behind the restaurant into a performance area that can seat 800 to 1,000 people — about double Tremont's population. And they plan to create a stage modeled after Tammy Wynette's childhood front porch.
They would also like to add a high quality recording studio and private dining rooms for the restaurant.
"I want it to be a destination center for outstanding classical country music, as well as a platform for young people to come and perform and be encouraged to take their career as far as they can, whether it's to be a professional or just to be better musicians," Cantrell said.
Cantrell and the board are currently busy planning an 80th birthday celebration for the late country singer. Scheduled for May 14, the celebration will begin over the state line in Red Bay, Alabama — the other town Wynette called home — and continue in the afternoon in Tremont.
For Cantrell, the event represents the perfect opportunity for visitors to take in all the Tammy Wynette Legacy Center has to offer Wynette's fans or those looking to know a little bit more about the small town's local country music legend.
To Cantrell, the First Lady of Country Music has a lot of wisdom to impart, and he's happy to help her share it.
"That's a body of her work; that's not her legacy," Cantrell said, speaking of the wall covered in Wynette's records. "The real legacy is what was taking place in her mind, and that sign in there says it all."
That sign reads: "She believed she could, so she did."
