Bill Anderson on the Jackson Street bridge

Country music star Bill Anderson poses for a photo on the Jackson Street bridge, just east of downtown Atlanta, a site that has long been popular with photographers seeking to capture impressive shots of the city's skyline. Anderson was born in Columbia, South Carolina but moved to Decatur when he was 9 or 10 years old. He attended Avondale High School, graduating in 1955. One of his high school bands, the Avondale Playboys, had a live radio show every Saturday morning on WBGE, which broadcast from the basement of the Georgian Terrace Hotel. As a nineteen year-old college student at the University of Georgia, Anderson jump-started his career in country music by penning City Lights, which Ray Price, who gets my enthusiastic vote for the greatest country singer ever, recorded and turned into a #1 hit on the Country charts. This photo was taken in 1969, when Anderson was near the peak of his commercial success. Top photo courtesy of the Atlanta History Center. Bottom photo: November, 2013. Google map