Celebrities that lived in Keo

Jill Jackson from “Hey Paula” song fame lived in Keo.  She and her co-singer
Ray Hildebrand met at college in Texas and started singing together in 1962.  Their son “Hey Paula” sold 2 million copies and charted #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 hits for the entire month of Febnary in 1963.

Their follow up song “Young Lovers” reached #6 on the billboards later in the year 1963.

Ray Hildebrand got tired of traveling and wanted to complete his education so he left the duo. Jill Jackson

as a solo artist. She resides in San Fernando Valley,CA. and is continuing a solo career.  They have gotten together a for special occasions to sing their duos.  They appeared in England on October 14th to entertain local residents.
During his career as a bluesman, Keo native Elmon Mickle was known by a variety of nicknames but the stage name that stuck best was Driftin’ Slim.  He was born Feb. 24, 1919, to Eva and William Mickle, Mickle said "I didn’t have to work on no sharecropper or nothing like that."  Mickle lived and played in Little Rock in the 1940s and early ‘SOs.  During this time, he cut songs like “My Little Machine” at area radio stations.  Mickle also recorded several tracks at a  North Little Rock music store in the early 1950s with Ike Turner, who was a record label talent scout as well as a per former.  The Driftin’ Slim track “Good Morning Baby,” recorded May 6, 1952, in North Little Rock, features Ike Turner on piano, guitarists Babyface Turner and Junior Brooks and Bill Russell on drums.

Elmon “Driftin’ Slim” Mickle died in 1977 in California.
Yet another celebrity from Keo was Buddy Holderfield who was an amateur boxer weighing in at 137 lbs. He was the 1944 National Golden Glove Champion.  It looks like a new Arkansas film star has been born “Shotgun Stories,” Little Rock native Jeff Nichols’ debut feature film, celebrated its national premiere at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York this past weekend.  The independent feature, was shot largely in Scott and Keo in the fall of 2005, New York magazine included it in an article on the Top 10 films to watch at Tribeca.

It looks like a new Arkansas film star has been born “Shotgun Stories,” Little Rock native Jeff Nichols’
debut feature film, celebrated its national premiere at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York
this past weekend.  The independent feature, was shot largely in Scott and Keo in the fall of 2005,
New York magazine included it in an article on the Top 10 films to watch at Tribeca.  The film stars Michael Shannon, Natalie Canerday, and Alan Wilkins were also in the movie.

The film premiered internationally in February at the Berlin Film Festival.  Nichols hopes to bring the film
to Arkansas in July or August once he has a distribution deal.