Morehead State University professor emeritus and music icon Jay Flippin, 68, of Morehead, passed away, Thursday, Oct. 16.
A Virginia native, Flippin earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Mars Hill (N.C.) College and a master’s degree from MSU. He retired in 2001 after teaching full-time for more than 31 years but continued to teach one class while writing, keeping a vigorous performance schedule and pursuing other avenues in music.
An Emmy-Award winning musician, Flippin was an accompanist, arranger, composer and teacher. He provided more than four decades of service to the Lexington Singers and Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. A well-known jazz pianist, he toured and performed with some of the biggest names in the entertainment business.
Flippin performed with the Count Basie Band, Rosemary Clooney, the Platters, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Ricky Skaggs, and Wilson Picket. He also enjoyed an active composing career, penning radio and TV jingles, arrangements for all kinds of musical ensembles, and numerous film scores, including the EMMY nominated music for the 1998 documentary Hearts of Glass.
For his varied accomplishments, Flippin received the Morehead State University Distinguished Faculty Creative Productions Award, the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Man of the Year Award, and, "for outstanding service to the Southern Ohio Jazz Society and the cause of jazz in Southern Ohio," the key to the city of Portsmouth, Ohio. In 2006, Flippin was awarded the Artist Award by the Kentucky Arts Council.
| Visitation | Saturday, October 18, 2014, from 3:30 p.m.to 6p.m. -- |
| Funeral | Sunday, October 19, 2014, at 2 p.m. Button Auditorium at MSU -- |
| Interment | Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens |