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Journeys in Vintage Music with Cecelia Otto

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Centennial Celebration

Central Nebraska Highlights, plus the Lincoln Highway turns 100!

July 14, 2013 by Cece

The last few weeks have been non-stop! Between the performances, interviews, and just general merriment, it’s all been amazing! Unfortunately, the road has finally caught up to me almost 4 months later. My immune system crashed, I got sick, and I’m now resting and recovering for the next stage of the tour. I can finally sit down and update you on this exciting time in the Lincoln Highway’s history.

I’m doing the next couple posts slightly out of sequence because there’s so much information to cover. Today’s post will focus on Grand Island and all of the festivities for the Lincoln Highway’s 100th birthday in Kearney. My next post will be about the 2013 Lincoln Highway Association’s annual conference (of which I am a proud member), and then I’ll resume my regular posts which head westward.

Wow, where do I start in regards to all of this? There’s still a mix of honor and disbelief that I was a part of the Lincoln Highway’s birthday. It all went by SO fast! What really accelerated things for me were all of the various TV, newspaper and documentary interviews I did during this time (all media stuff I did was a complete surprise to me). This is the first time on the tour where people walked up to me and knew who I was! Audiences in Grand Island and Kearney overall were very enthusiastic of the project and the music, and the Lincoln Highway pride was in full force everywhere. It was amazing to have so many people from all over the world in one place celebrating America’s first transcontinental road, and to be a part of those festivities was so humbling.

I truly wish I could have had more time to spend in Grand Island. There’s a lot of really wonderful things going on in this town. Originally I was set to perform in the Grand Theatre, but when renovations weren’t complete, I ended up performing at the Liederkranz instead. The universe direct us to places and people that we never thought we’d meet, and I have to say the Liederkranz is one of those places for me. It was an amazing place to sing, and the owners Fred and Gloria are top notch people in the community. The city of Kearney is roughly half way between San Francisco and New York City, so it was a natural choice to host the Centennial celebration. I got to the city before the LHA auto tours, the Tin Can Tourists, and other folks from all over arrived to the town and everything was all abuzz in anticipation of what was on deck for the coming weekend.

Okay, enough yakking. In a blog first, you’ll see a lot of pictures of me in this post, which is thanks to my husband Dan who was my roadie, photographer, and overall awesome guy during this busy time in the project. I couldn’t have done it without him!

The Shady Bend Campground in Grand Island used to provide gas, food and lodging to travelers for many years, and there were extra amenities like a playground and a sandy beach lake. Today it is now a restaurant.
Love this original sign above the main door at Shady Bend!
Not too far down from Shady Bend is Kensinger’s Gas Station, which is still a fully operating gas station for more than 75 years.
Here’s a picture of the gas station interior. Thanks to Richard Grudzinski for letting me take pictures of everything.
You saw the main room in the previous picture, here’s the back room of the gas station.
The sign to Kensinger’s gas station.
Located behind Kensinger’s in Grand Island, this is an original seedling mile (paved 1915). You can’t drive on it, but you can walk on it.
Another view of the Seedling Mile, with a few Burma Shave signs this time.
The Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer is a couple miles south of the Lincoln Highway, and definitely a fun must see when in the area.
It’s not fancy, but I’ll take it! The door to my dressing room for my live TV appearance.
Here’s the outside of the building I performed at in Grand Island, the Liederkranz. The club has been around since the 1870’s, but this current building has been in existence since 1911 (it was built along what would become the Lincoln Highway).
The Liederkranz is used for a variety of things from dances to dinners to sing-alongs, acoustically it was a perfect place to sing.
It’s a fuzzy picture, but as you can see this microphone is an old one and has probably been around for a long time.
There is a gentleman counterpart to this tapestry, but I loved these ladies that were awaiting me in at the Liederkranz.
Guess who made front page news in Kearney! What a nice surprise to see when I was checking into the hotel.
Singing for my supper in downtown Kearney.
Will Rogers and I look on at the parade as it goes by.
The Lincoln Highway “Marching Marker” made its debut in Kearney for the parade! I wonder if I’ll see it anywhere else…
Even Smokey the Bear made an appearance!
One of the hundreds of beautiful cars I saw during the parade on Sunday.
I’m not really a car person, but when a Tucker drives by, I pay attention.
These bike riders were so hypnotic to watch.
Officially the most unique car in the parade, this camper/truck made all kinds of fun and crazy noises as well as had some moving parts on the outside too.
Even FDR showed up to the festivities! He really loved my rendition of “God’s Country” (the song mentions the President himself).
My guitar player was Jeff Erpelding, a local Kearney musician who plays in a few bands in the area. Not sure what I’m pointing at, but it must be important!
San Francisco or Bust!
Kearney’s World Theatre was right across the street from where I was singing. It has been recently restored back to its 1920s glory, and it played a silent movie during the festivities.
Here I am with one of the great old cars that was on the 1910s block.
On Monday, I performed two great shows at the Archway to mark the highway’s centennial. In between sets, I ran over to the hotel to set up my table for the Lincoln Highway’s Annual conference (more on that in the next post).
There was a huge celebration at the Archway Monday evening, where there was a lot of good food, music and Lincoln Highway merriment! One of the things that did happen also was the Brian Butko gave a talk on Monday about the newest book he edited “The Lincoln Highway: Photos Through Time”.
Here’s a picture of Brian and I with my signed copy!
Last but most definitely not least, here’s the picture of me in this new Lincoln Highway book! You can find me on page 21. Thanks to Jamie Ralston (My Lincoln Highway) and Brian for putting this picture in the book. It was truly a wonderful surprise to see, especially on the 100th birthday of the road!

Filed Under: Lincoln Highway, Lincoln Highway Conference, Music, Nebraska, Venue Tagged With: Auto Tour, Brian Butko, Centennial Celebration, Grand Island, Kearney, Liederkranz, Lincoln Highway, Lincoln Highway Association, My Lincoln Highway

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