By Lisa Hornung
Though he wasn’t born here, John Prine’s Kentucky roots make him a son of the Bluegrass State, tightly embraced by anyone who’s heard the song “Paradise” and sung along with joy and tears.
An unofficial anthem for Kentuckians, the song evokes nostalgia for a place most of us have never been -- a town completely removed to harvest its coal. It also showcases his love for his parents’ home in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
Prine died in April 2020, an early victim of COVID-19, just about a month before his scheduled Louisville show at the Louisville Palace. Over the next year his widow Fiona Prine, his sons and some of his friends created the Hello In There Foundation, named after one of Prine’s most popular songs. Prine wrote “Hello in There” at age 22 while delivering newspapers to a senior center. He noticed the loneliness of the elderly, a small example of his caring and kindness.
The foundation “firstly was established to continue John’s legacy of kindness and generosity,” Fiona Prine said. “If you knew anything about John, you knew that he was both kind and generous. Certainly, as his wife and our family know that his generosity just knew no bounds really. From personal family kindnesses and generosity to just, he would never pass by a veteran on the street without stopping. So, we use that as our gold standard.”
The couple had talked about setting up a foundation. They had given to many causes throughout their lives, but never got around to creating an official fundraising organization. The first major fundraising event was scheduled for October 2021 to celebrate his birthday on Oct. 10. But COVID came roaring back, and they decided to cancel until the following year, Fiona Prine said.
This year the organization had its third annual fundraiser, You’ve Got Gold, in October. Between that and the annual campaign, Fiona Prine said she expects to be able to contribute $300,000 to hurricane relief in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton. She said the organization plans to donate $180,000+ to Gulfport, Florida, where she owns a home and the rest to other areas in need of post-disaster help. Fiona Prine also said the foundation was able to help areas of Kentucky hit by tornadoes and floods in recent years.
“There’s a big affinity, obviously, with Kentucky. … Just being able to tap into the region, you know. [John’s] parents would say that he was pure Kentuckian. And we visited a lot there, every year, a couple of times.” Fiona Prine said.
Creating the Hello In There Foundation was a way to honor Prine’s memory, but it also helped with Fiona Prine’s grief or at least delayed it.
“I think initially it [helped] because it kept me busy,” she said “Last year, even though we were still busy and having my son Jack Prine, a board member of the Hello In There Foundation, and then having Celine Thackston as executive director, they took a lot of the workload for me last year because I was having a particularly difficult time with grief. So I feel that I finally got into my grief in 2023 but yes, being busy always does help. But sometimes, if you’re over-busy, it can just delay the inevitable. And I think that might have happened to me.”
The transition from wife to widow was particularly hard for her because of the closeness of the couple. “We met in 1988, and we were pretty much together from the time that we met all the way up until his final moments. We spent all of our time together. So it was a huge loss, a huge life change for me.”
The Hello In There Foundation’s mission is “to identify and collaborate with individuals and communities to offer support for people who are marginalized, discriminated against or for any reason, are otherwise forgotten.”
The foundation supports many organizations, including Ella’s House to help pregnant and parenting student mothers attending college in the greater Nashville area, Central Appalachia Health Wagon, Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors to provide compassionate immigration legal services to those seeking humanitarian relief, Musicares for a safety net of critical health and welfare services to the music community, Muhlenberg Music Mission, Color Me Country to support representation of Black voices in folk, Americana, and country music, Healing Appalachia to save lives and fight the opioid epidemic, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans to give emergency and supportive housing, food, health services, job training and placement assistance, legal aid and case management support for homeless veterans, Tennessee Immigrants and Refugee Rights Coalition to advocate for immigrants and refugees, Comfort Connections to help with their work with children and families affected by the Covenant school shooting in Nashville, and many more.
“We value the community that supports us,” Fiona Prine said. “I would like to express my gratitude to them, to let them know that we are mindful and thoughtful about every cent that we spend. We’re fully transparent and we just love that John’s community is, along with us, creating some goodness in the world. It feels very right.”