The 50th anniversary of the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention is all the more special to John Owen, because it was in that first year, 1966, his uncle William “Bill” Owen was crowned the first Fiddle King.

“I will always say, at least in my eyes, he was one of the best fiddlers to come out of Limestone County,” Owen told The News Courier Thursday.

John Owen is traveling from Kentucky to Athens this weekend to be part of the anniversary celebrations. It’s sure to be a trip full of memories, because the convention was always a family affair. But even before the convention started, the Owen family was a name just as well known to the Limestone County music scene as the Delmore Brothers, Owen said.

This story starts in the Great Depression, when a calf was sold to purchase Bill and John Owen a fiddle and a mandolin. The brothers learned to play and, in time, they and a friend named Hawkins Kyle became a sought after bunch. They called themselves Bill Owen and the Elk River Drifters and only paused their performing when the trio were deployed during World War II.

Before then, though — before Limestone County even had its own radio station — the Owen brothers and Kyle performed at dances, parties, rallies or most any place a group of people were expected to gather.

“You name it, he was part of anything going on in Limestone County,” Bill’s nephew, also named John Owen, said.

In 1966, a fiddle competition was held to raise money for the high school in Lester. At the end of it, Bill Owen, then 50, was to face off against a younger man named Ernest Tucker. And dual they did. A Huntsville newspaper photographer captured a shot of Tucker and Owen on the stage with a judge smiling behind them. Another shot shows the crowd sitting enraptured watching the two men play their best.

Owen came out on top and history holds him as the first ever Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddle King. He continued to support the convention every year he could until a stroke in the ’90s kept him at home and his fiddle still. Bill Owen died in 2002 at the age of 86.

Now, John, his nephew, and the rest of the Owen family are working to secure the legacy of Bill Owen and the Elk River Drifters. John and family are making arrangements to have some of Bill’s recordings digitized to be placed in online storage where music fans can listen to him play for years to come.

John is also planning to donate his Champion Beginning Fiddler trophy from 1970 to Athens State’s music museum.