William Ralph Paris: b. 1942, d. 2024
From his obituary:
“William Ralph “Rod” Paris, Jr. (b. 1942, d. 2024), outside of
work, loved to be surrounded by others who enjoyed learning. He served
in officer positions of many organizations in both Crittenden and
Caldwell Counties including the Community Arts Foundation, Masonic
Lodge, Fredonia Valley Heritage Society, Caldwell County Historical
Society, Trail of Tears Commission, Sons of the American Revolution,
the American Legion, Shape Note Singing organizations and the Paris
Cemetery Association, among others.
“Pleasant Hill Regular Baptist Church was his church home. He was a regular attendee for decades and he also was the regular speaker for a few years after their pastor retired.”
Erin Fulton tells us more (2026):
William Ralph "Rodney" Paris grew up singing dispersed harmony in his household and at Pleasant Hill Regular Baptist Church outside of Marion, Kentucky. His grandfather had taught singing schools from the New Harp of Columbia in western Kentucky and western Tennessee around the turn of the twentieth century and was later an accomplished gospel quartet singer. His grandmother, on the other hand, had first learned to sing from the Southern Harmony and continued to return to songs like Indian Convert [NB: while doing housework!]. (The Parises were also aware of the Christian Harmony, which was being sung from in the Jackson Purchase at that time, but did not sing from it themselves or know how to read the Walker shapes.)
Rodney's great-uncle Sherman was another old-time singer among the family. When Rodney first heard about Big Singing through the *McCreary Journal *around 1968, his grandmother was surprised and delighted to learn that people were still singing from the *Southern Harmony*. By that time, Pleasant Hill had gone over to singing mostly gospel music and Rodney was hungry for "old harmony." He first attended Big Singing in 1969 and missed only two sessions between then and his death. Rodney learned the four shapes by attending the "practices" that members of the Nichols family held at their homes in Benton during the 1970s.
His wife Nancy, who was from the Bluegrass area and did not have a shape-note background, became involved in singing after their marriage in 1978. She had a sweet tenor voice. They would both hold responsible positions in the Society for the Preservation of Southern Harmony Singing over the years. Even though Nancy's father Bruce Elliot King thought that shape-note music sounded "wild," he started hosting (and cooking extensively for) monthly singings in Marion, Kentucky, to support her and Rodney's interest. Those monthly singings eventually led to the Fohs Hall mixed-book all-day singing, which persisted for nine years.
After Raymond Lay Nichols had died, Rodney often conducted the memorial at Big Singing. He was also well-known for "setting the time" by using the plumb bob from his surveyor's kit as a pendulum. (He recalled being upset when he first read the rudiments of the Southern Harmony and learned that songs were often being sung more slowly at Big Singing than the mood of time specified.)
The local singing community and particularly Brandi Potter helped Rodney extensively after Nancy died in 2023. Rodney was proud to remain living in the same log farmhouse in which he had grown up in Fredonia, Kentucky; as his health deteriorated, one of his grandsons moved in to care for him and became more involved in singing as a consequence. We last saw Rodney at Big Singing of 2024, where he led 288t, Hebron, in memory of his wife. (Rodney had a large repertoire of songs that he led from Southern Harmony, but 11, Jerusalem was always a favorite.) He was tenderly remembered at Big Singing of 2025, where his and Nancy's daughter Martha Smith remembered him with 38, Resignation.
Special mentions at singings
- 2025: Big Singing
- 2024: Georgia State Convention
- 2020: Big Singing
Roles undertaken (and minuted)
- 1998: Fohs Hall: chair
- 1997: Fohs Hall: chair, memorial
- 1996: Fohs Hall: chair
- 1995: Fohs Hall: chair