Next week Beale Memorial Library will offer another key stop for fans of the Bakersfield Sound. Ten large-scale portraits of local country greats will serve as a visual tribute to our rich musical legacy.

The artwork forms the backbone of Legends of the Bakersfield Sound: Portraits in Black & White, a permanent exhibit that will take over the walls leading to the auditorium on the first floor.

Painted by former local artist Patti Peak Doolittle, the portraits have enjoyed a song-worthy journey from Bakersfield to Northern California then Florida before returning home to fanfare and eventually headed to the library.

Doolittle, who was known for a number of murals across Kern County, created the roughly 5-foot-by-7-foot portraits inspired by her childhood.

“She grew up listening to Cousin Herb Henson’s ‘Trading Post ‘television show, and that’s what inspired her to paint the portraits in the 2000s,” said Lynne Kemmer, Kern County local history and workforce librarian who helped organize the exhibit. “As a child, she watched the show, and then as an adult, having become an artist, she decided to paint some of the musicians that she remembered watching on the show.”

She painted Henson along with two portraits of Buck Owens (in different eras), Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens, Billy Mize, Red Simpson, Bill Woods, Tommy Collins, Fuzzy Owen and Lewis Talley, widely considered the “architect of the Bakersfield Sound.”

Doolittle loaned her work to Trout’s where it was on display until the Oildale honky-tonk closed in 2017. After that, the portraits, along with the famous Trout’s sign, went missing.

In 2023, the paintings were found in storage in the Sonora area along with other items from Trout’s former operator Allan Thomas Rockwell. (The sign was found the next year in Tuolumne County, where Rockwell had lived.)

Anna Reading-Carey, a member of the nonprofit Citizen Preserving History, was instrumental in tracking down the portraits.

After the discovery, the local group founded by sisters Di Sharman and Glenda Rankin jumped into action.

Sharman and her husband, Mark, were able to deliver the portraits to Doolittle at her home in Pompano Beach, Fla. Doolittle’s husband, Marvin “Marvino” Steel, an artist and professional art restorer, was able to restore the paintings that Doolittle then donated to Citizen Preserving History.

The portraits, which Sharman told The Californian were “the spirit of our early musical pioneers,” were then brought back to Bakersfield and briefly displayed at Eva’s, the Fox Theater’s adjacent small event space as part of “Project Doolittle” in January 2024.

The library first entered the narrative in December of that year when it hosted The Bakersfield Sound Family and Friends Reunion, which included a screening of a 1988 ribbon cutting for the Bakersfield Country Music Museum at the Kern County Museum. (Although plans for that project didn’t pan out, the museum did open its own Bakersfield Sound Exhibit in 2022.)

Kemmer said, “It was a home movie of that event, it featured many of the Bakersfield Sound musicians who performed on that day. So the purpose of that event was really to screen that film and share that home footage, share the paintings, and also host some of the musicians and their friends and family members.”

During planning that event, Sharman mentioned the group was looking for a permanent home for the portraits.

Beale Memorial Library is home to the California Fine Arts Collection, an impressive array of works from 19th and 20th century California artists, amassed between 1987 and 1995 thanks to the Kern County Library Foundation, which raised the $1.5 million for the project.

Director of Libraries Andie Sullivan suggested that the foundation might be able to bring the musically inspired artwork to the museum.

Kemmer said Dan Raytis, a foundation board member, was instrumental in helping raise funds for the new exhibit, which required replacing the original framing and adding thick plexiglass to keep the work safe from damage.

Early next week, the final two portraits, along with a red-white-and-blue guitar donated by the Buck Owens Foundation, will join the other eight works already up on the wall along with exhibit text with short biographies of the musicians and other relevant history about the Bakersfield Sound.

(Kemmer mentioned the Buck Owens Foundation had previously donated 900 copies of Linda Stacey’s 2006 children’s book “Freight Train Running: A Biography of Buck Owens,” which has been part of themed storytimes led by Sharman, a former schoolteacher.)

Photos of the portraits at Trout’s and musicians shot by Felix Adamo, from his days working for The Bakersfield Californian, will be part of Thursday’s event. Kemmer said a permanent photo display will be added to the exhibit in the future once rights have been secured.

Prior to the unveiling on Thursday, Kemmer said the Kern County Board of Supervisors will offer a proclamation about the dedication at its meeting on Tuesday morning.

She said the city would also be issuing a proclamation about Doolittle.

The artist will be in attendance on Thursday, speaking at the event along with library leadership, elected officials, a member of the Kern County Library Foundation and community partners.

Kemmer said Kern County Museum Executive Director Mike McCoy will speak as well as Scott Bomar, music historian and author of “The Bakersfield Sound: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and California Country.”

Following the ceremony, attendees will be able to enjoy live music performances featuring Ernie Lewis, Rick Reno Stevens, Norm Hamlet and Zack Arnold, with vocal performances by Rocky Savage, Zane Adamo of The Soda Crackers, Theresa Spanke, Jennifer Keel, Kim McAbee and David Simpson.

There will also be giveaways of Stacey’s book as well as “The Bakersfield Sound — Country Music Capital of The West 1940-1974,” a deluxe box set of 10 CDs of music along with extensive liner notes by Bomar.

The celebration will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday at the library, 701 Truxtun Ave.