Mae, We Remember

Posted on April 8, 2024 By Editor Neighborhood News, Riverside, Avondale, Ortega, Murray Hill

Artur and Jessica Nistra at their historic Murray Hill residence.

Murray Hill residents honor Mae Boren Axton

It started off as rumors and urban legends for homeowners Artur and Jessica Nistra, whispers that their Murray Hill home at 3239 Dellwood Ave. had historical significance in Jacksonville’s musical past and had once been home to Mae Boren Axton, the “Queen Mother of Nashville” and the woman who co-wrote Elvis Presley’s first gold record award-winning song.

Nistra and his wife purchased the house in 2022 after falling in love with the vibrant, walkable community and said neighbors would mention here and there that the home had ties to Axton and Presley. Every now and then, he said, he’d see cars stop outside his house and passengers would snap photos of the one-story, post-World War II home, but still they dismissed it “because it sounded just like an urban legend.”

It wasn’t until a man from WJCT knocked on his door to explain he was doing a documentary for PBS that “the light bulb really came to my head,” Nistra said.

“That’s when I told my wife, ‘Listen there’s something about this house. I think we should look into it,’” he said. “We both appreciate history and we both appreciate art. This house a little bit of both.”

Little home, large legacy

So Nistra embarked on the unexpected mystery of discovering the history within the four walls of their home.

His first stop was City Hall to check property records and though he wasn’t able to find anything, he was turned on to “Elvis Ignited: The Rise of an Icon in Florida,” a book by award-winning journalist Bob Kealing chronicling Presley’s rise to stardom in Florida between 1955 and 1956.

A sculpture of Elvis Presley presides over the living room at Nistra’s home. Before ever finding his Murray Hill home, Nistra originally purchased the memento for his father, who had been a big Elvis fan. His father passed before he could give it to him and Nistra brought it along in their move to Murray Hill, oblivious to their home’s ties to Presley.

Kealing’s book was Nistra’s first piece of concrete evidence that his home had been the site of something special as he found a passage within the pages citing Axton’s – and now Nistra’s – Dellwood Avenue address.

“But what happened within its walls in 1955, weeks after the completion of Presley’s second Florida tour, brought him the breakout hit he’d been waiting for,” the passage read. “Just where are timeless songs supposed to be written? In this case, one took shape in the living room of working people hit by a bolt of inspiration that came and went in minutes, leaving them a legacy for the ages.”

The “breakout hit” Kealing references in this passage is “Heartbreak Hotel,” which Axton co-wrote with Tommy Durden, another Jacksonville-based singer/songwriter.

The Facts on Axton

Nistra said he’s been unable to definitively confirm that Presley ever visited the house, but he has “many references” that he did. And while he does appreciate and respect the connection to the king of rock ‘n’ roll, it was Axton with whom he became fascinated.

“When I learned about Mae Axton, that’s when I was dazzled,” he said. “She was a busy, prolific, intelligent, active woman, and we’re talking about the 1950s. All the things that she did, I was amazed. I was like, ‘This lady by herself, she’s a big deal.’”

Mae Boren Axton was a schoolteacher, a publicist, a journalist and a songwriter. She was born in 1914 in Oklahoma. Upon her passing in 1997, the Oklahoma State Legislature passed a resolution mourning her passing and celebrating her accomplishments. As stated in the resolution, she wrote more than 200 songs beyond “Heartbreak Hotel” and worked with several then-aspiring musicians including Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Kris Kristofferson and served as publicist for Kenny Rogers, Hank Snow, Crystal Gayle and Jerry Reed.

Additionally, the legislation read, Axton was “a charter member and one of the organizers of both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association.”

She was inducted to the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame and was recognized by the National Songwriters Hall of Fame as “one of the 50 greatest women songwriters.”

Axton’s son, Hoyt, also lived in the Dellwood Avenue home for a period as a child and grew up to become a well-known singer/songwriter in his own right.

Living in history

Today, Nistra marvels at the ties his home has to music history. While his home had undergone renovations and an expansion over the years, he said the bones remain the same and the living room, and the room that now serves as his office, remain true to the home’s original floor plan.

Nistra says the room that serves as his office is true to the original layout and often wonders if Mae Axton once listened to or played music where he now works.

“So, I know for a fact that where I’m standing [the office] and the living room, they are original spaces; they are untouched,” he said. “They have been refurbished and painted but they have been untouched. So every time I go from my office to the living room, I always wonder, Did they hang out over here? Were they playing music over there? It drives me nuts!”

The home is recognized by the City of Jacksonville as a local historical landmark, and Nistra had a plaque installed describing why and how the home is recognized as such. Since the plaque’s installation, he’s seen more people swing through his street to snap photos, including one woman who drove up from Tallahassee.

When he saw her exit her vehicle holding a record, he thought she was another Elvis fan paying homage to the king and went outside to greet her. It turns out, however, she was a friend of the Axton family and it was a Hoyt Axton record she was holding. Nistra invited her inside for coffee.

“She was sharing all her memories of Hoyt and Mae and how pleased she was that somebody recognized them,” he said. “Then she cried, and we all cried. It was awesome.”

The Murray Hill residence is just another addition to Jacksonville’s already rich musical history. Riverside’s “Gray House” is recognized as the birthplace of the Allman Brothers Band. Another Westside home is known as the Van Zant House and was the childhood home to Ronnie and Johnny Van Zant, members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Renowned musicians like James Weldon Johnson, Pat Boone, Ray Charles and modern bands like Yellowcard and Limp Bizkit all have ties to Jacksonville.

“The home of Mae Axton is just one of Jacksonville’s many historically meaningful places,” said Jacksonville Historical Society CEO Alan Bliss. “Recognizing it as an historic landmark is how we let the people of the present and the future know something about those who came before us. This city is their legacy, but now it is ours to maintain and improve, for the Jacksonvillians yet to come.”

By Michele Leivas
Resident Community News