Mitchell Franklin "Mitch" Jayne (July 5, 1928 – August 2, 2010) was an American musician, best known as emcee and upright bass player in The Dillards bluegrass band, the band often remembered for their several Andy Griffith Show appearances as the Darling Family, 1963–1966, as well as touring throughout southern California in the late 1960s.
[1][9] Jayne had almost finished another novel, Glory Hole War, prior to his death at age 82, with only one chapter left unwritten.
Following US Navy service and after a stint at the University of Missouri, he began teaching in one-room schools in Dent County, where he documented the use of the forgotten words and phrases of Elizabethan English spoken by his pupils.
[10] Turning his talents to other venues, Jayne authored a weekly column in the Shannon County Current Wave, in his adopted Ozark hometown of Eminence, Missouri.
He hosted a radio show in Salem, Missouri at KSMO that attracted national attention for its satire, including the Snake and Tick Market Report, a regular feature that reported market prices for Hoo-Boy White Dot Crushproof Dry Valley Wonder Ticks and black, copperhead, coachwhip, garter and rattle snakes.