MADISON COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — On Sept. 24, a historical marker was erected on Highway 208 near Tweed Farm Road in Madison County, honoring the life and songs of the late Mary Sands.
Sands was a traditional Appalachian ballad singer born in the Laurel section of Madison County in 1872. She was known as “Singing Mary” and was famous in Madison County for singing old ballads that had been in existence for centuries before in the British Isles, according to a news release by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
She died in 1949…