John Murray "Hippie Jack" Stoddart Jr.

Stoddart died at his home in Crawford, Tennessee, on Friday, September 25, 2026, at the age of 75. Jammin' at Hippie Jack's shared the news over the following weekend, and WBIR, Main Street Journal, The Upper Cumberland Now and the Herald-Citizen reported it. No cause of death has been made public. A celebration of life is scheduled for November 7, 2026, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Hippie Jack Farm in Overton County. In lieu of flowers, the family asked for donations to the Council for Americana Roots Music.

John Murray Stoddart Jr. was born on February 28, 1951, in Miami, Florida. In 1972 he and Lynne DesGrange Stoddart came to Tennessee and settled in Crawford on the Cumberland Plateau. He rented space on the Livingston town square to develop black-and-white film and began photographing the people and places around him. Friends and neighbors soon knew him as Hippie Jack for his straw hat, beard and unconventional spirit.

Stoddart spent five decades documenting Appalachian life on the Cumberland Plateau. Early subjects included Benton Lee, Ms. Copeland, Elmore and Ruby, Claude Ramsey, Snaking Logs and the Hobecker Mennonite family of Muddy Pond. He appeared at the American Artisan Art Show in Nashville in the late 1970s and held a one-man show at Cheekwood in 1980. His work entered collections at the Smithsonian, Tennessee State Museum, Hartwick College and the Atlanta Art Museum. After silver gelatin paper was discontinued in 2004 he moved into video. In May 2007 he founded Jammin' at Hippie Jack's Music Festival on the family farm, later building the Council for Americana Roots Music, a long-running PBS series and a WDVX radio program in Knoxville. Recorded artists included The SteelDrivers featuring Chris Stapleton, Darrell Scott, Dan Tyminski, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Guy Clark.

Stoddart was married for 54 years to Lynne DesGrange Stoddart. They had four children, Avery Stoddart Hutchins, Jason Stoddart, Jessica Stoddart Ladd and Silas Stoddart, and several grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Sally Stoddart Hayes. Family remembrances described him as an avid reader, writer and poet who loved fireside evenings, walks in the woods, gardening, autumn flowers such as zinnias and sunflowers, and football, especially the Miami Dolphins, the NFL and the Vanderbilt Commodores. From 2011 he and Lynne led a volunteer humanitarian effort that delivered food, clothing, firewood, school meals, children's coats and help with medical and funeral expenses across the Upper Cumberland.

Stoddart is remembered for preserving Cumberland Plateau faces and places in photographs that reached national museum collections, for building a family-friendly Americana festival and PBS platform that gave roots musicians a stage, and for pairing art with neighbor-to-neighbor aid. Tributes said his legacy lives on in the images he made, the music he welcomed and the community he served one meal, winter coat and act of generosity at a time. His saying "The wrong people doing the right thing" was widely repeated after his death.