Accident claims life

Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Friends were shocked to hear about the death of Minford barber and bluegrass musician Steve Whitt.

According to a report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, around 4 a.m., Whitt, 53, was southbound on Ohio 335 near the Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport when his Plymouth Voyager went off the left side of the road and hit a tree. Whitt had to be extracted from the minivan and was pronounced dead at the scene. The OSHP said no other cars were involved and the accident is still under investigation.

Dave Corill has played music with Whitt for years and was the band, engineer and producer for their bluegrass radio show “Flatt Lonesome,” which ran on WNXT-AM radio from 2000 to 2003.

“I’m devastated, just devastated,” said Corill. He said he had gone deer hunting early Monday and didn’t know what had happened until he came out of the woods for lunch.

“When I got the phone call, I just got sick to my stomach,” Corill said. “He was just a true friend. I’ve known him for so long that it seemed like he was invincible and he would always be there. It was a terrible shock.”

Coriell said he had known Whitt for as long as he could remember, recalling that Whitt and his father, Don, would play ball at get-togethers.

“I was just a kid when we started playing music, I guess around 8 years old,” he said. “We hit it off. We just had a love of bluegrass, and I just looked up to him.”

Corill is the owner of Bluegrass Tire Shop and the Skull Hollow Studio where they produced their radio show.

Corill said the “Flatt Lonesome Show” was a tribute to the “Martha White Show” of the 1950s and 1960s which featured bluegrass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.
Corill said Whitt’s barbershop was a shrine to bluegrass, especially Flatt and Scruggs.
“There was not enough room to put one more photo on the wall,” he said. “He’d have customers in there and everyone would be sitting and listening to Flatt and Scruggs or to tapes of our radio shows.”

Local folk artist Steve Free said he remembers Whitt’s barbershop being a “trip, like something off of the Andy Griffith Show.”

He said that although he and Whitt played in different genres, “Steve was completely supportive of all different types of music. You don’t see many musicians like that.

“With a lot of musicians, there is an ego or jealousy, ‘My music is the best music,’” Free said. “He was a really cool guy. I’m going to miss him.”