Jimmy was best known as a photographer but he wore many hats in his life. Not only was he an award-winning country music photographer, but he worked as a videographer, director, film editor, actor, writer, poet, photojournalist, artist, and contractor for several government agencies doing surveillance photography.
EARLY YEARS
Jimmy Moore was born on a kitchen table in Lawrenceburg, TN in 1938. His father was a local fire chief and Civil Defense director. His mother was a homemaker with an outrageous sense of humor. Jimmy was the firstborn of three; he had two younger brothers, Larry (1949-2014) and David (1957-2011).
His obsession with photography began in his early teens when his grandmother gave him a folding camera that he rigged with cardboard. His photos of events in Lawrenceburg caught the attention of the local newspaper, and from there on, he never stopped shooting pictures.
He graduated from Lawrence County High School along with his childhood sweetheart, Avagene Nelson, who he married and had three children with between the years of 1960-1966. They remained married for 62 years until Avagene’s death in 2020.
In the 50s, he began shooting photographs of Southern gospel music groups. With the encouragement of Smitty Gatlin of the Oak Ridge Quartet, Jake Hess of the Statesmen, and J. D. Sumner of the Blackwood Brothers, he started shooting album covers for them and later for many of the top gospel groups.
At 23, he became the Director of Research Photography for Union Carbide’s Advanced Materials Laboratory (AML) assigned to a NASA/U. S. Air Force contract for the Saturn Spaceflight Team. At AML, he learned the technical skills of photography and also macrography, photomicrography, metallography, and the operation of the electron microscope.
With his photomicrographs of component parts of the Saturn rocket’s re-entry and exhaust systems, he won the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International First Prize. His work was displayed at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, the Union Carbide building in New York, and at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
MUSIC BUSINESS
In 1967, Jimmy left the NASA project and met songwriter John D. Loudermilk and guitarist Chet Atkins. They became good friends and Jimmy shot Loudermilk’s album cover “Suburban Attitudes in Country Verse” and was nominated for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences coveted Grammy award.
Chet Atkins and producer Felton Jarvis (Elvis’s producer) assigned Jimmy album covers for RCA artists, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. For the next 15 years, he shot albums and did photography for The Oak Ridge Boys, George Hamilton IV, Eddie Arnold, Tammy Wynette, The Eagles, The Birds, The James Gang, Allman Brothers, Roy Acuff, Jerry Reed, Charlie Rich, Hank Snow, Dottie West, Dolly Parton, Asleep at the Wheel, and most of the country and rock stars of that time.
In 1969, he won the Gospel Music Association’s “Dove” Award for the best album cover with the Oak Ridge Boys’ “It’s Happening” album and Billboard’s Country Music Award for George Hamilton IV’s “Back Where It’s At” cover.
For two years, Jimmy was ABC’s official photographer for “The Johnny Cash Show”, shooting thousands of photos of Johnny Cash and his guests for use in TV Guide and other promotional publications.
Diverse opportunities resulted in Jimmy photographing Senator Everett Dirksen, Marguerite Piazza, Charles Aznavour, Louis Armstrong, Burt Reynolds, Ringo Starr, Nat Hentoff, and many others.
During the early 70s, Jimmy was a regular on CBS’s Hee Haw and was featured in the Charlie Chaplin-style sequences which he wrote and produced. He also secured a speaking role as Deputy Miles in the film, Walking Tall Part 2: The Legend of Buford Pusser.
CIVILIAN/MILITARY CONTRACTOR
In the 80s through the early years of the twenty-first century, Jimmy served as a photographer, videographer, scriptwriter, and creative advisor for the National Guard Bureau’s special group, the Visual Information Support Center (VISC), and their Rapid Response Documentation Team (RRDT). With the RRDT, he responded to all disasters involving the National Guard such as hurricanes, floods, civil disturbances, and training events. He was the RRDT mission leader to the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, and for 10 days documented all activities at “Ground Zero” and the Pentagon. Soon after, Jimmy was assigned to Fort Irwin to document the AARs of the training for Afghanistan troop deployment.
Jimmy wrote and directed over 150 documentaries for the military on subjects such as the environment, military training, counterdrug, counter-terrorism, National Guard history, weapons of mass destruction, warfighter systems, and numerous others. Many of these documentaries won “Telly” and “Crystal” awards, and national video competitions for production, writing, and videography.
Throughout his career, Jimmy worked as a floating contractor loaned to different federal agencies primarily for shooting surveillance photos and video. This work included undercover assignments in Central and South America with hundreds of hours logged in UH-1 Huey’s and UH-60 Blackhawks plus C-130 transport aircraft.
AUTHOR/SCREENWRITER
Jimmy published two poetry books: A Value of Time and Love and Daydreams and Assorted Kisses. Jimmy completed a third book on his life story entitled The Invisible Threads. His screenplay, Daybreaker, was reviewed by 20th Century Fox.
PERSONAL LIFE
Jimmy supported Lawrence County, Tennessee all of his life, however, he was a traveler and lived in other places for either work or personal reasons. For many years, he roamed and led a hedonistic lifestyle. His whereabouts were unpredictable and his communication was unreliable. He was prone to addictions, from alcohol and narcotics to prescription drugs in his last years. At times he was incapacitated by episodes of extreme depression. Because of his double or triple lives secrecy and volatile personality, his closest personal relationships suffered.
It may be true that Jimmy’s best friends were animals. There were too many pets to mention—dogs, cats, birds, raccoons, squirrels, etc.—but the joke was that any animal within a five-mile radius of Jimmy Moore was overweight. He was an animal whisperer, and with the exception of a crab in North Carolina that tried to amputate his finger, animals loved him. Jimmy and Avagene rescued many animals and found homes for puppies and kittens.
Jimmy was a skilled artist, working with oils and acrylics. The extent of his painting collection is unknown as many were sold, given away, or destroyed.
Although he was not a musician (his attempt to learn to play guitar was unsuccessful), he loved music of many genres. After many years of touring with musicians and bands, Jimmy lost much of his ability to hear.
Jimmy supported artists and the artistic goals of anyone he knew. He was drawn to new ideas and forms of expression and often remarked that he would never tire of visiting the Smithsonian. He was inspired by aviation, the ocean, beautiful girls, and chocolate.
Although some of Jimmy’s earlier writings suggest otherwise, for most of his life he was a staunch atheist. His opinions about the existence of God changed after his involvement in the aftermath of 9/11. He was intensely patriotic from the liberal days of his youth to the conservative beliefs of his old age.
DEATH
Jimmy Moore died at home on the morning of March 29, 2022, after a series of illnesses from which he could not recover. He was 83 years old.
