There was a time in the early 1970s where Hayfield High School had one of the biggest gymnasiums around so they used it for all kinds of things, like a country music concert featuring Dolly Parton.

She wasn’t quite the name she is now, but the country music crowd knew her, and there she was on the stage in the gym at Hayfield alongside other country musicians such as Billy Crash Craddock, Larry Daniels, Linda Lee O'Dell, Swing Ryders, Teri Gregory, Melina Dawn, and The Buccaneers.

Hayfield resident Patti Derflinger remembers being a 9-year-old at the show and somehow got in the autograph line afterwards where she got many of the performers to sign. Dolly seemed to have a short show, Derflinger remembers. Recently she was digging into some old family papers when she found the ticket stub and autographs, bringing back the memories. “When they were doing autographs, I remember I just kind of got in the line and dug the stub out of my pocket for them to sign,” she said.

It was a big deal for the little community of Hayfield Farm. The area was more “country,” then it is now. Kingstowne was a bunch of dirt bike trails, the 7-11 was the only store around, and Nixon just resigned.

Billy Crash Craddock was a country star with all sorts of top tunes for that time and when he was on stage at Hayfield, his big hit was "Rub It In", a top 20 pop hit. At the time, he was signed with ABC Records. Craddock did a cover of the Tony Orlando and Dawn pop hit "Knock Three Times" in 1971. Craddock was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2011. Country star Linda Lee O'Dell played a few times at Hayfield. One of her shows in 1975, a ticket was $5 in advance or $6 at the door.

Big Gym of Big Names

Other well-known celebrity events at Hayfield included a pro wrestling match featuring “Haystack Calhoun,” a celebrity on that circuit, and a Jerry Lewis muscular dystrophy event reportedly featuring Jerry himself, though he never appeared on stage, disappointing audience members. After the then-named Washington Redskins appeared in their first Super Bowl in the early 1970s against the Miami Dolphins, stars from both teams were in a basketball game at Hayfield, as were the Harlem Globetrotters. Also on the courts, the Washington then-named Bullets played against the 76ers in an exhibition NBA game at Hayfield.