On this day fifty years ago, November 10th, 1973, Stringbean Akeman frailed his final phrases on a Vega #9 five-string banjo, did his signature hand wave and hat flip one last time, and stepped off the Opry stage and into the history books in what would come to signal a change for the Opry itself, country music as an industry, and even country music as an institution. Before the night was out, Stringbean Akeman and his wife Estelle (Stanfill) were shot by two 23-year old cousins who’d come to know of Stringbean’s habit of keeping large amounts of cash on...