(WBIR - KNOXVILLE) - Knoxville City Council blessed plans Tuesday night for a pocket park in Bearden to honor former Knoxvillians and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Don and Phil Everly.
The site is at Kingston Pike and Forest Park Boulevard, near the shopping center that includes Earth Fare. The park is close to where the Everlys lived as teens and roughly a mile from West High School, which they attended in the mid 1950s.
The state owns the land but City Council came to an agreement with them to use it for the park.
Acquaintances and admirers of the brothers and neighbors in the area have been quietly working on the park for many months.
Young dogwood trees bloom on the site, and freshly laid sod extends in a wide swath in front of a stone wall.
The Everlys moved to Knoxville as boys with their parents in hopes of hitting it big on the music scene. They played on entrepreneur Cas Walker's radio program with their father in downtown Knoxville until Walker decided he didn't care for their music anymore.
Don Everly, born in 1937, graduated from West in 1955. Phil, two years younger, was a sophomore at West. Before Don Everly's graduation, he already was writing tunes that drew attention in Nashville, so he quickly moved to the Music City to seek his fortune after getting out of high school. Phil Everly joined him.
The brothers were known in particular for their sweet, irresistible harmonies. By the late 1950s they were as famous in Europe - if not more so - as they were in the United States. The Beatles and Rolling Stones were just some of the budding groups who took notice of the brothers, their talent and their hair, always a bit long for the day.
The brothers, Phil in particular, became friends with Buddy Holly, and when Holly died in February 1959 in a plane crash in Iowa, Phil attended the funeral in Lubbock, Texas.
Their hits included "Wake Up, Little Susie" and "Bye, Bye Love," both by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, well known in East Tennessee for "Rocky Top." One of their most critically albums can still be bought today, called "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us."
The brothers toured into the 1970s until deciding they were tired of each other. They reunited for a tour in 1984 that included a triumphant performance at London's Royal Albert Hall.
They were among the first musicians inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1986.
Phil Everly died in January 2014. Don Everly has occasionally come back to Knoxville to meet with old friends from high school days.
