The Hillbillies were started in the late 1960s at El Hasa Temple in Ashland, Kentucky, by Noble Jim Harris. Harris decided there needed to be a sideline degree that devoted its time and resources to the Shrine Hospitals. He received permission from his Potentate to start The Grand and Glorious Order of the Hillbilly Degree. Calling on his experiences as a real Hillbilly, he then wrote a ritual. Today, it is the largest group within the Shrine, with more than 170 Temples having charters.

Zenobia Shrine Hillbillies received their charter #75 on May 10, 1983. They were the 75th Temple requesting a charter. Six Nobles from Zenobia (Gene Dauer, Norm Churchill, Ken Perry, Sr., Jack Lawrence, Charles Cromley, Dick Bartell) traveled to Greenville, South Carolina, to receive the degree from Hejaz Temple, Clan #2. They returned to Toledo, applied for and received a charter and started the Hillbillies, now known as “Turkeyfoot Clan #75.” Sadly, only two of those six Cuzzins, Dick Bartell and Charles Cromley, are still with us today.

Some turn up their nose at our group and say that we are abasing a group of people. Nay, not so! We are only celebrating a way of life that those who live it celebrate every day. This is evidenced by the fact that the second largest event in the state of Kentucky is the annual Hillbilly Days in Pikeville, which was started by two Shriners. For more information on Hillbilly Clan #75, click here to go to "About Our Clan."

Our Mission

Over the years, the Hillbillies of North America have donated more than $8,000,000 to the Shriners Hospitals! Our clan has donated more than $85,000 to the hospital system and our next goal is to buy and donate a van to the Zenobia transportation system to transport children to and from the hospitals. We are about halfway to that goal and we are having a lot of fun reaching that goal.

The official Hillbilly motto is: “You can’t put a price on what we do for children, so we do it for nothing.” At Turkeyfoot, we took a saying from one of today’s popular entertainers and started using the saying “Shrine Hillbillies Git-r-dun fer Kids.” We invite you to join us for a good time and to help us “Git-r-dun”!

Want to join our clan? Click Here!!

Our Events

Our Clan has two annual events: the Chili Cook-Off in early March and the Possum Queen Contest in mid-August. Both events are free of charge and we hold an initiation at each of them. We have also appeared in many parades in northwest Ohio receiving donations and winning many trophies while having a great time. We encourage our members to participate in the parades and anyone wanting a parade vehicle of their own can get any old junk car, insure it to the Temple’s satisfaction, and we will help you decorate it for the parades! Our main source of income at the present time comes from parades and donations.