Walk of Fame
Legacy of local musicians ‘Jay’ Franks, Pat Cupp honored
The Regional Music Heritage Center took the final day of the Scott Joplin Centennial Celebration to add two more names to the Arkansas Municipal Auditorium Walk of Fame Park
Jake Charles “Jay” Franks and Patt Cupp both became new members added to the Park during a dedication ceremony at the AMA, Sunday.
Franks, who wasn’t at the ceremony, but nevertheless had many of his relatives attending the event, became among the first Texarkanians, under their own name, to record with the nationally recognized Modern Records company label in 1952.
Franks, along with many other local musicians, made history when their racially integrated bands performed in front of equally integrated audiences inside the auditorium, in the face of rigid Jim Crowe segregationist laws August of 1956.
“My dad wasn’t only a great performer, but he was a great man,” Lauretta Scott Franks said of her dad.
“Even now, I can still see him smiling about this.”
Her brother Charles “Craig” Jake Franks, agreed.
“It never really dawned on me what an impression my dad had on this city,” Franks said. “Dad was a real people person, regardless of race.” As for Cupp, a 1956 graduate of Arkansas High School, he developed his own style of Rock-N-Roll pioneering in 1956 when he and the “Flying Saucer” band appeared locally many times with such rockabilly legends as Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash
and Roy Orbison. Cupp himself is now also enshrined as a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
“This is very emotional for me,” Cupp said. “I don’t know if I have the vocabulary to describe how I feel - other then to say that this feels like my academy award. This closes the book on my life. Thanks so much for coming out to share this occasion with me.”