It was 40 years ago this summer (1976), several of us kids who grew up at First Baptist Church Henderson, Kentucky, learned and sang the children’s musical about our country, “Let George Do It.”
We performed the musical all over town as part of the 1976 bicentennial celebrations. We were in quite a demand for many children’s singers and actors.
“Let George Do It” is a children’s unison and two-part musical featuring George Washington and King George III.
It was appropriate that we did it in 1976, the 200th birthday of the United States of America.
One of the songs, G-E-O-R-G-E Washington, featured these words:
First in War, first in Peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen. Let George do it; he is the man of the hour.
The songs spelled out George Washington’s name G E O R G E W A S H I N G . . when you got 2000 pounds you got a T O N! The United States was 200 years old in 1976.
It was a whimsical musical with unison children’s parts. I guess that is one reason I enjoyed it so much—I could actually sing the soprano part and get away with it.
We learned the music early in June 1976 when we went away to camp (we called it Junior Music Camp back then). This year was particularly different since we didn’t go to Cedarmore (Baptist Camp in Bagdad, KY). We went to a camp that was just us First Baptist Henderson KY kids (we were a big group). It was Camp Reveal on the north side of Evansville, Indiana.
We had several highly accomplished musicians and actors with us. People like Kenny Butler and Lonnie Klein came with us as chaperones. My mom, Mary Elizabeth Priest, and Janie Coursey came as cooks.
Merrilyn Smith was our pianist and accompanied most of the children’s choir musicals. She really had the mojo for this particular musical since she has an incredible flair for ragtime blues music. Of course, her daughter Shelly had one of the singing parts, too.
My grandmother, Elizabeth Hancock, and other seamstresses in the church (Alice Langston and Eleanor Eades) made exquisite costumes for this musical. My mother kept mine for many years, loaded it out once, too, and never saw it returned.
What do you remember about the FBC kids doing “Let George Do It” in 976? Who were some of the kids that had leading roles?
originally posted 7.4.2011, edited for clarity 7.28.2024
