2024 John Wayne Birthday Celebration

This year's celebration honors director John Ford, a Friday night reception at the museum featuring discussions and book signings with esteemed authors Scott Eyman and Michael F. Blake, and the annual Benefit Dinner and Auction at the Madison County Fairgrounds. Musical headliners will be the wildly popular stars of stage, screen and television, Riders In The Sky. Forty-year veterans of Nashville’s Grand Old Opry, these classic western music performers are probably best known for “Woody’s Roundup” - the theme song from Disney Pixar’s Toy Story 2. No strangers to the John Wayne Birthplace, the Riders were on on hand in 2007 to help celebrate John Wayne’s 100th birthday and the launch of the John Wayne Birthplace & Museum. Big screen presentations of Ford's The Searchers and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon will take place at the Iowa Theater on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.