[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 55 (Thursday, April 14, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2503-S2504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO AL HAWKES

 Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I frequently come to the floor to 
speak about a Maine small business that has done remarkable things in 
its community, or a business owner who has made a lasting impression on 
his or her company's employees. Today, I wish to recognize a Maine 
entrepreneur who has an inspiring life story that many have never 
heard. It is with great pride that I introduce to you a very special 
Maine resident and lifelong musician, Mr. Allerton Hawkes, whose 
amazing contributions to Maine's small business community and to the 
entire Nation's bluegrass legacy know no bounds.
  Mr. Hawkes was born on Christmas Day, 1930, in the city of 
Providence, RI. Soon thereafter, when Al was 10, his family returned to 
the southern Maine city of Westbrook to live on an old family farm. As 
a young teenager in the 1940s, Al began listening to bluegrass music by 
tuning in to remote Southern music radio stations, and he was 
determined to play several stringed instruments often associated with 
bluegrass. He soon became friend with a man named Alton Meyers, whom he 
met scavenging through record bins at a used furniture store in 
Portland. Because of their shared love of music, they became the first 
interracial duo to play bluegrass--presenting many live performances 
and radio shows until 1951, when both began their service in the U.S. 
military.
  This duo remains to this day, historically, our only interracial 
bluegrass duo. Although Mr. Meyers passed away in 2000, Al Hawkes--now 
in his 80s, continues to be involved in the bluegrass movement. 
Fortunately for all of us, the bluegrass duo's recordings have been 
preserved forever by Bear Family Records which has provided the 
Nation's audience with a compact disc recording containing 70 minutes 
and 27 tracks of this special part of our American musical heritage. 
Furthermore, Al has been joined by several friends in compiling a CD to 
benefit research combating Parkinson's disease, which is forthcoming.
  Al continues to live in Maine and has amassed a very valuable 
collection of American bluegrass and country recordings. He has been 
recognized by the International Bluegrass Music Museum as one of the 
pioneers in bluegrass at a ceremony in Owensboro, KY. Al's historical 
legacy is contained in a documentary entitled ``The Eventful Life of Al 
Hawkes,'' which also recently aired six times on Maine's Public 
Broadcasting Network. His famous remark about his musical history--that 
he believes there is a ``bluegrass gene'' which he inherited--seems to 
reflect in his additional musical accomplishments, playing with other 
bluegrass and country stars throughout the years and being the 
recipient of 25 awards in the musical lexicon.
  Beyond bluegrass, Al's deep-seated Maine legacy revolves around a 
huge sign of a repairman which, to this day, is a famous landmark in 
southern Maine. As a small business entrepreneur who ran both a TV 
repair and dry cleaning business in the noteworthy Hawkes Plaza, Al 
actually made and installed the famous icon sign of the 13-foot high 
repairman who once sported 385 light bulbs, fluorescent lights and 
moving parts which gave the illusion of a walking repairman. To 
residents' delight, the sign--although no longer sporting the creative 
lights or moving parts--still remains a treasure which sustains 
generational memories, nearly 50 years after Al built it in 1962. 
Indeed, Maine's unique character has thus been supported by Al's 
wonderful inventiveness on several fronts throughout the years.
  Al Hawkes is truly a Maine and national treasure whose inheritance of 
that special ``bluegrass gene'' has provided us all with the rich and 
entertaining joy and privilege of listening to great, distinctive 
American music. I am proud that Al has chosen to stay in Maine, and has 
led such a distinguished and varied career, from small business owner 
and entrepreneurs, to pioneering and accomplished musician. I wish Al 
all the best, and thank him for his outstanding contributions to our 
Nation's cultural life.

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