Lee Mace

Lee Mace was born July 30, 1927, at Brumley to Lucian Thomas and Clare Buster Mace. He founded "Lee Mace's Ozark Opry" at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. The Mace family owned and operated the show beginning in 1953 when Lee and his wife, Joyce, opened the doors to the show that became known as the longest running original Opry, second only to Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. It closed in 2006 when Joyce retired. During his 32 year operation of the show (and over 9,000 performances, both there and on the road), he never missed a performance. His trademark was playing a "rousing, slapping, free-wheeling bass fiddle." He died June 16, 1985, in a plane crash in Gladstone Cove on Lake of the Ozarks near Gravois Mills. A probe into the fatal crash of his homemade, single-engine airplane, did not disclose any mechanical failure.