Don Grooms
1996 FLORIDA FOLK HERITAGE AWARD
Born in 1930, Don Grooms was raised in Cherokee, North Carolina. He came from a family with Cherokee and Appalachian heritage. As a child, he played a cornstalk fiddle, cigar-box banjo, and a $3 Silvertone guitar. His maternal grandfather made wooden banjos. At 10, Grooms began playing for square dances and at 14 he belonged to a dance band that played pop tunes. Upon graduation from high school, Grooms started business school, but military service in Korea interrupted his studies. Upon his return, he attended Florida Southern College in Lakeland and then Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
