Nina Simone finally gets her due

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Nina Simone is known and respected the world over for the power of her song. But how well has Western North Carolina treated the legacy of one of our own? Not very well, until now.

There are three different efforts in Tryon, Simone’s hometown, to memorialize her. The Tryon Downtown Development Association is heading up the Eunice Waymon/Nina Simone Memorial Project, which includes plans to build a life-size bronze statue of the songstress and a desire to create a music festival, as well as scholarship fund.

And in a separate project, Simone’s birth home is being restored. The aim is to make it look like it did when Simone was born in 1933. (Simone died in 2003.) The wood-frame, 540-square-foot house is located at 30 Livingston St. Simone’s family moved into the house in 1931 and stayed there no more than six or seven years before moving to Lynn, just outside Tryon, and a few other houses in the area, according to the Hendersonville Times-News, which has the story here.

It’s about time we give one of our own the proper respect she deserves.