A Return to Possum Holler
2017
"A Return to Possum Holler" was a 2017 reunion concert reviving the spirit of the Possum Holler Opry, a homegrown country-music variety program that ran on Quincy's WGEM television in the 1960s. The show ran live and was never taped — the cast figured they'd last only three weeks — so no original footage survives, which made this stage reunion a rare chance to gather the people who made it. The evening was built as a benefit for the Mid-America Military Salute, opening with the National Anthem and a presentation of colors.
Ken Bradbury assembled and shaped the program, drafting and redrafting the running order over several months of meetings and phone calls, and also appeared at the piano. The night wove together the surviving performers and alumni: founder Toby Dick Ellis told the story of how the show began and got its name; Greg Scott and the Q-City Squares opened each act with square dancing and the house band; and singers Mike Silvernail, Helen Ripperda, and Linda Cassidy — a Quincy-area girl who went on to a Nashville recording career and European tours — took the main stage, backed by longtime Possum Holler musicians.
Interviews were staged intimately on stools at stage left in front of the curtain, dressed with greenery for a homey feel, while full musical numbers played out on the main stage behind. A pre-show video montage of vintage Quincy — local businesses, old sponsors, and "Quincy Back in the Day" — set the nostalgic tone twenty minutes before curtain, alongside a clip from a WGEM anniversary broadcast. The whole company closed the show together with the gospel standard "I'll Fly Away," followed by the show's traditional sign-off, "Y'all Come!"
Musical Numbers
- "Always on a Mountain" / "Working Man Blues" — Mike Silvernail
- "I've Been Everywhere" and "The Auctioneer Song" — Helen Ripperda
- "Act Naturally," "Satin Sheets," "Farther Along" — Linda Cassidy (numbers under consideration)
- Ragtime piano solo — Ken Bradbury
- "I'll Fly Away" — full company
- "Y'all Come!" — full company, led by Chris Vallilo
Cast
- Host / Possum Holler founder — Toby Dick Ellis
- Singer — Linda Cassidy
- Host / closer — Chris Vallilo
- Square dancing — Greg Scott and the Q-City Squares
- Singer — Mike Silvernail
- Former floor director (interviewed) — Phyllis Bush
- Lead guitar (age 90) — Danny Perez
- Singer — Helen Ripperda
- Steel guitar — Mike Jones
- Pianist — Ken Bradbury
- Backup musicians — Jim Daw, Rod Pippey
- National Anthem — Diane Hillebrenner
- Al Harvey tribute — Rocky; tribute to Toby — David Ripper / Mickey Lacey
Production Notes
The reunion was staged in a school auditorium, with a same-day rehearsal schedule running from a 9:00 a.m. crew call through pre-show at 6:40 p.m. and curtain at 7:00 p.m. The production used the venue's onstage piano, lights, and curtain, with a small crew of stage hands, a sound operator, and light- and spotlight-board operators.
Ken Bradbury's planning notes capture the show's origins as a 1960s Quincy time capsule (the Possum Holler Opry aired roughly May 1960 to May 1970) and his ideas for tying period sponsors and "You're from Quincy When..." nostalgia into the evening. The benefit drew sponsorship support, and the program was framed throughout as both a community reunion and a salute to area veterans.