RENFRO VALLEY, Ky. — Loretta Lynn, Rosemary Clooney and the Everly Brothers are among the 12 inaugural inductees to the new Kentucky Music Hall of Fame & Museum scheduled to open in May.

        The inductees — or pioneers of Kentucky music — were announced Friday. They were chosen by an advisory board based on criteria that they were born or lived in Kentucky and have been working in the music industry for at least a decade.

        In addition, the inaugural class — to be inducted Feb. 28, — had to be at least 70 percent from country, bluegrass, folk, gospel or religious genres of music.

        The other inductees are Clyde Julian “Red” Foley, John Lair, Bill Monroe, Tom T. Hall, Jean Ritchie, Merle Travis, Louis Marshall “Grandpa” Jones, Bradley Kincaid and The Osborne Brothers.

        Ms. Clooney, a Maysville native, scored four No. 1 singles in the early 1950s after getting her start along with her sisters at Cincinnati radio station WLW-AM during World War II. She later co-starred with Bing Crosby in the movie White Christmas and collaborated with Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington.

        Ms. Lynn — best known for her No. 1 song and biography “Coal Miner's Daughter” — was the first woman to earn the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year award in 1972. That same year the Kentucky native shared Vocal Duo of the Year with the late Conway Twitty. Another inductee, the late Bill Monroe pioneered the bluegrass music genre along with his band the Blue Grass Boys in the 1940s. His childhood home in Rosine was restored this summer.

        Memorabilia of the Hall of Fame inductees will be displayed in the new museum. The museum — a $6 million, 16,600 square-foot facility at Renfro Valley in Rockcastle County — is part of a plan by state officials to draw tourists to eastern Kentucky.

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