Central City and the Everly Brothers

A Day Away By Mike Steely

Knoxville’s Everly Brothers Park is but one of many places across the country that claim the famous musicians, who attended West High School briefly and appeared on the Cas Walker Television Show as teenagers.

Central City, Kentucky, is about 35 miles from Owensboro and claims the Everly Brothers as well. Phil Everly was born in Chicago but Don was born in Brownie, which is now Central City.  A marker there notes that both brothers attended high school in Knoxville.

But Central City has another claim to the brothers: both Don and Phil are buried there in Rose Hill Cemetery. Other accounts have Phil buried in Nashville and Don buried in Central City.

The Everly Brothers were the sons of a musical family that moved around, entertaining for a living.

On Labor Day in 1988, Central City hosted an Everly Brothers Homecoming and the annual event spanned 14 years before becoming an annual cruise-in and car show on that holiday to honor the brothers.

Central City also is home to the Green River Correctional Complex, an underground mine, and the Kentucky Women’s Hall of Fame. The Muhlenberg County Rail Trail is there along with a rebuilt rail car from the Paducah and Louisville Railroad.

Another famous musician, flutist Jim Walker, hails from Central City. The population is only about 6,000 people and the Western Kentucky Parkway skirts the south edge of the city. Originally called Morehead’s Horse Mill, the city was also known as Stroud City.

In our many travels over the years, my wife and I stopped at Central City and paused at the Everly Brothers monument there. Anyone in the area of Bowling Green should head north and visit Central City. On the way, you might want to take a brief side trip to Paradise and remember another noted late musician, John Prine.