Lee B. Haggerty

Lee B. Haggerty (1930–2000) was a co-founder of Folk-Legacy Records. His love for traditional music and ballads formed in the early childhood, while Jules Allen (2) records introduced him to America's folk music. Haggerty's interest in literature and traditional poetry continued throughout his academic career at Western Reserve Academy and Knox College in Illinois. In 1960, he learned from an announcement on WFMT that Sandy Paton had added folk music section to the spoken-word records department at Krock's and Brentano's bookstore in Chicago. He soon became its regular customer and good friends with Sandy and his wife Caroline Paton. Lee was very impressed with tapes that Sandy had made on a field collecting trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, so he suggested that they formed Folk-Legacy Records in 1961 and provided financial backing. Their first LP Frank Proffitt was issued early in 1962. Five years later, the company moved to Sharon, Connecticut, where Lee shared a remodeled barn with the Patons and the business. Over the 39 years of their association, he helped to produce more than 120 albums of folk and folk-related contemporary music, particularly proud of their traditional field recordings.