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No restrictions. Open for research.

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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 Penny Parsons Collection #20558-z, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Penny Parsons in November 2018 (Acc. 103473).

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, November 2018

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, November 2018

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine ethnic 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 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 ethnicity to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@email.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.

• Bluegrass musicians--North Carolina--Biography.
• Bluegrass musicians--United States--Biography.
• MerleFest.
• Music festivals--North Carolina--Wilkesboro.
• Music posters.
• Parsons, Penny.
• Seckler, Curly, 1919-2017

Penny Parsons is a white music journalist who has spent much of her life involved with the bluegrass community, serving as marketing and promotions director at Sugar Hill Records, publicity director for MerleFest, and as manager and producer for white bluegrass mandolinist and tenor vocalist Curly Seckler. Parsons is the co-author of The Bluegrass Cookbook and the author of Foggy Mountain Troubadour: The Life and Music of Curly Seckler. She has also contributed articles to Bluegrass Unlimited magazine for 35 years.

Penny Parsons, a white music journalist who has spent much of her life involved with the bluegrass community, collected MerleFest posters, circa 1995-2008, and miscellaneous printed materials relating to white bluegrass mandolinist and tenor vocalist Curly Seckler. MerleFest is a music festival founded in 1988 and held at Wilkes Community College to honor the memory of Merle Watson, Doc Watson's son and musical partner. Merlefest is one of the major music festivals in North Carolina and in traditional music in the United States.

• Oversize papers (OPF-20558/1-2)