I'm about one hundred miles from Nashville, in Chattanooga, TN. USA, and everyone around here has Acuff stories, or Hank Williams stories, Flatt & Scrugg stories, etc. Lots of the older people I jam with were in their bands at one time or another (especially Bill Monroe's bands). I was recently researching Mollie O'Day, from WNOX in Knoxville (TN USA), who was a minor opry star of the late thirties and forties (Tramp on the Street, Wreck on the Highway, etc.). I mentioned it to my barber, and he told me a story about Acuff and O'Day playing in a nearby community " about forty or fifty years ago). By and large, he is considered the showman who was "the man" in country music for many years. Seldom here any bad comments about him from those who knew him.