Restrictions to Access

Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Johnny "Junior" Edwards Collection #20467, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Cynthia Williams in August 2009 (Acc. 101505).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Nancy Kaiser, Patrick Cullom, and Anne Wells, May 2019

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser and Anne Wells, May 2019

Updated by: Anne Wells and Meredith Kite, September 2019

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Dukes of Dixieland.
• Edwards family
• Edwards, John Frank, 1921-1976.
• Jefferson County, Miss.--History--19th century.
• Meridian, Miss.--Social life and customs.
• Sharecroppers--Mississippi--History--19th century.
• Soldiers--United States--Correspondence.
• United States. Army. Armored Regiment, 67th.

John Frank Edwards (1921-1976), better known as "Johnny" and "Junior," was a white musician known for his expertise as a jazz drummer in New Orleans, La., playing with bands that included the original Dukes of Dixieland. During World War II he served in the band of the 67th Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division of the U.S. Army. His wife, Elizabeth "Libby" Helton Edwards, survived him and later married his friend and bandmate, jazz clarinetist Harold Cooper.

The Johnny "Junior" Edwards Collection documents the musical career of John Frank Edwards (1921-1976) and Edwards family history and consists of audiovisual materials, scrapbooks, letters, original and copy print photographs, legal and financial materials, ephemera, and other papers. There are letters written from Jefferson County, Miss., Meridian, Miss., and Delta, La.; letters written during the Great Depression; letters from Edwards to family in New Orleans, La., while he served as a musician with the band of the 67th Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division in the U.S. Army during World War II; an 1896 sharecropper agreement with Littleton Henry; account statements from Cohn Bros. in Lorman, Miss.; clippings about Harold Cooper, who played jazz clarinet with the Dukes of Dixieland; family history materials; detailed notes from family members that provide collection context; annotated LP covers; family and publicity photographs; and a scrapbook, 1930s-1940s, of photographs and letters of Libby Edwards. The collection also contains audiovisual materials, including audio recordings of music by Johnny "Junior" Edwards, Harold Cooper, and others, as well as video recordings of a reunion of descendants of the Jersey Settlers of Adams County, Miss. Audio recordings are on audiocassette, while video recordings are on VHS.

• Photographs (IB-20467/1)
• Audiocassettes (FS-20467/1-4)
• Audiotapes (FT-20467/1-47)
• Videotape (VT-20467/1-2)