Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993 TAG: 9302120360
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
UNDERTAKER BRINGS BLUES TO HOMETOWN
George Ellery Penn had two dreams when he was growing up in Pulaski - to become an undertaker and to open a music club.He realized the first one when he bought into a Radford funeral home years ago and later became owner of Penn's Funeral Home in Pulaski. He now has reached his other goal.
"That blues sound that people travel all the way to Memphis and New Orleans for, we bring it right here," he said.
Ellery's Blues & More is already open on weekends, but will have its grand opening Saturday with a Valentine's blues ball featuring Bobby "Blue" Bland, the Duke of the Blues.
Bland, a blues musician since 1949 recently inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, will perform during two shows at 8:30 and 11:30 p.m. Admission is $20 for club members and $25 for non-members.
More than 100 people already have paid their one-year $50 membership dues to join. Penn plans to cut off memberships at 250 because the club's seating capacity could not handle more.
The grand opening had been planned for October on the third floor of the building at 220 N. Washington Ave., being leased from Dr. Nathaniel Tuck. But Penn and those working with him ran into building-code problems, forcing them to put their club on the first floor.
It killed the project's momentum and required months of additional work, Penn said. But they got it done.
"We're just trying to make it happen," said Penn, 45. "To get that type of entertainment into our area is something we've been working toward for a long time."
Paul Krayer, part of the Power Force house band, will be the club's music director. He is a graduate of the Musicians Institute in Hollywood and has worked as a musician for the past eight years.
Penn plans to recruit young people into a new vocal group, Face to Face, to give them ways to develop talent they may not know they have, he said.
"We're planning to bring The Manhattans in, several large acts," he said.
Besides all that, he plans to add a restaurant to the enterprise and will be approaching Pulaski Town Council on Tuesday to seek a loan from Urban Development Action Grant funds to help do it.
Once completed, the restaurant would be open to the public for lunch and dinner on all days but Mondays, he said.
Although he was a musician first, as both a drummer and vocalist, he had his eye on the funeral business too. As a youngster, he used to admire funeral directors like DuVall Seagle and others.
"It was always a mystery to me what they did, so I had to find out."
Now that he is in both businesses, he said, "they tease me about being diversified."
Penn's love of music goes way back. He performed all over the East Coast as a member of the True Tones. The group included his brother, William Penn. Both will be performing at Ellery's in the weeks ahead.
"We've traveled as musicians for a long time," George Penn said. "I always wanted to put this type of establishment in our hometown, to show people here what the South has to offer. . . . That's been a life-long dream, really."
Making dreams come true is nothing new for the Penn family. The tradition goes back at least as far as Penn's mother, Maria Penn, now 84, who had a dream even after she became a widow in 1958 that all her children would be college-educated.
She collected the money the various brothers earned from their musical endeavors toward that end. "We had to report back to Momma," Penn said.
"She said `All of you will be educated,' " he recalled. "I used to laugh - how in the world is she gonna do this? But she did it."
One brother later died in an accident. The others are successful in various fields. Clarence P. Penn, who managed their musical group, is now superintendent of schools in Surry County.
George Penn remembers his mother watching freedom marches on television as the civil rights movement unfolded. She agreed with the movement but still wanted her children educated.
"She wanted to make sure all her sons had something to offer once freedom was attained," he said.
Howard Jenkins, who traveled with Penn's band and is now in the funeral business with him, pushed for Penn to move ahead on his dream of a club in Pulaski.
"It was his idea to quit dreaming and get it going," Penn said, laughing.
That was not easy, since none of those involved in the project had much money to invest in it. Accountant A.J. Smith worked with him on it, all the time shaking his head and wondering if Penn was crazy for starting it.
Patsy Conner, who will manage the club, and her nephew, Danny Conner, along with club doorman C.L. Pack and Penn, worked for months installing double fire walls, tearing out plumbing and doing all the other work that had to be done before the club could open.
"We did it all," Penn said. "I just believe that we'll get the support of the people because, in the New River Valley, we have some positive-thinking people here."