For the Love of Branson: Glen Campbell Day

In conjunction with my work with the Song of Hope Historical Society, I have played a critical role over the past few years in getting the City of Branson to name various “Entertainer Holidays” as we call them. For example, August 31 has been proclaimed Shoji Tabuchi Day, and we celebrate the first seven days in December as Andy Williams Week. In total, the city celebrates 30 historic days of musical remembrance, and they are all commemorated on a plaque at City Hall.

For many of these celebrations, the legends themselves were able to make it to the city council chambers to be honored by the mayor or in some posthumous cases, we invited family members to join us. However, a few times I was unable to get a hold of any family members, so we had to be creative. Last year, in 2024, the mayor was set to proclaim back-to-back holidays with Roy Clark Day celebrated on July 12 and Glen Campbell Day on July 13. In lieu of family, I invited longtime collaborators of Roy and Glen in Doug Gabriel and Jim Barber respectively. It was a tremendous evening and ultimately it did catch the attention of Glen Campbell’s daughter Debby.

While these days are technically designated for that particular year, our Song of Hope organization has taken great care not to overlap days so that we can celebrate these entertainers every year on their special date or honorary week.

And for many of these days, we’ve tried to host a special event to commemorate them. For Shoji Tabuchi Day, we held a press conference in front of the Clay Cooper Theatre that involved Shoji and his daughter Christina, and for Jim Stafford Day we held a similar news junket in front of his iconic guitar neck marquee that lives at our Song of Hope Museum. But, by far our most special event was a concert we held on Mel Tillis Day in 2022 on what would have been Granddaddy’s 90th birthday. The premise of “Branson’s Tribute to Mel Tillis” was that our lineup would include Branson entertainers performing his classic hits.

With the likes of Clay Cooper, Billy Yates and Mel Tillis Jr. we sold out the venue and raised over $5,000 for Branson Cares, a pediatric wheelchair organization.

So, when I told Debby Campbell about that event, she came up with the idea to do one in honor of her father as well on the one-year anniversary of his entertainer holiday. So that’s the plan! Mark your calendars for “Branson’s Tribute to Glen Campbell” on Sunday, July 13, at 5 p.m. inside the historic Hughes Brothers Theatre. Along with some local performers, country music icon Neal McCoy will be performing “Wichita Lineman” and Nashville recording artist Buddy Jewell will be performing “Galveston.” Furthermore, we have got some Branson legends joining us as well, as Tony Orlando will be performing “Southern Nights,” and Dino Kartsonakis and Barbara Fairchild will participate in special

tributes to Glen Campbell himself.

The proceeds from this event will go to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association as that was the disease that afflicted Glen in his final days on this earth. We hope that you join us for a night full of tributes, surprises and memories. To get your tickets, call the Hughes Brothers Box Office at 417-334-0076 or visit the special web page created for the event at HughesEntertainmentInc.com/Glen.