| Summary: | James Raymond “Jimmy” Simpson Jr. (1926-1966) was an Anniston musician. He led the Jimmy Simpson Orchestra, a popular dance orchestra which performed in Anniston and elsewhere in the 1940s and 1950s. He graduated from Jacksonville State Teachers College (now Jacksonville State University) and served as band director at Oxford High School for 15 years, making him at the time the longest serving band director in OHS history. Jimmy Simpson Orchestra performs on the bandstand at Zinn Park in Anniston, Alabama on July 28, 1948. Jimmy Simpson is standing at the microphone on the left. The Jimmy Simpson Orchestra was a dance orchestra and consisted of “professionals and student musicians from [Jacksonville State Teachers College].” The orchestra performed at a variety of events in Anniston in the 1940s and 1950s. According to The Anniston Star, the orchestra was in high demand “by school and college fraternities and sororities throughout Alabama and Georgia.” (Quoted The Anniston Star; May 12, 1948).
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