This weekend, the city where Isaac Hayes was born is spending two days making sure no one forgets it.

Between a benefit concert Friday night, the unveiling of a new honorary street sign Saturday morning and the return of the annual Isaac Hayes Day festival in Frazier Park that same afternoon, Covington is turning Labor Day weekend into a two-day tribute to the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning composer, singer, and actor who spent his earliest years just off the town square.

Early roots in Rialto

Isaac Hayes was born Aug. 20, 1942, in Covington’s Rialto community, where he was raised largely by his maternal grandparents after his mother’s death and his father’s departure.

The family lived in a small home across from Steven Chapel Missionary Baptist Church before Hayes moved with relatives to Memphis’s New Chicago neighborhood around age 7.

He began singing in church at age 5 and, after early struggles that once led him to drop out of school, went on to graduate from Manassas High School with help from teachers who encouraged him to go back into the classroom.

Becoming a legend

It was in Memphis, at Stax Records, that Hayes built the catalog that would make him a household name — co-writing soul standards such as “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’” with songwriting partner David Porter, then stepping into the spotlight himself with landmark albums like “Hot Buttered Soul” and “Black Moses.”

His score for the 1971 film “Shaft” made him the first Black composer to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song and also earned him a Golden Globe, on top of three Grammy Awards. He was later inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2002, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, in 2005.

Generations of television and film audiences also came to know him as an actor and voice performer, including his long-running role as Chef on “South Park.”

Hayes died Aug. 10, 2008, in Memphis, 10 days before what would have been his 66th birthday.

He has been celebrated in Covington for several years with the annual Isaac Hayes Day in Frazier Park and with a Tennessee Music Pathways historic marker in Court Square Park.

This weekend Covington will add another honor: The renaming of a street in honor of its most famous son is part of the two-day event.

A Friday night of jazz, R&B and country

The weekend opens Friday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. inside the Historic Ruffin Theater at 113 W. Pleasant Ave., where the Tipton County Friends of Isaac Hayes will present “An Evening with J-Wes Walker,” billed as a night of jazz, R&B and country music.

Jhon-Wes Walker, the son of Johnnie and Michelle Walker, is a lifelong member of the Covington community. A 2017 graduate of Covington High School, he continued his education at the University of Tennessee at Martin, graduating in 2022.

An accomplished runner and gifted saxophonist, he has long shared his love of music with others. He serves in the music ministry at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church and leads the band Crossfire, finding particular joy in using his musical talents to serve and connect with others.

Admission is by donation and a canned good, with proceeds benefiting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the Boys & Girls Club of the Hatchie River Region and the Tipton County Carl Perkins Center.

Organizers have framed the concert around a simple refrain: one note, one book, one future.

Unveiling the new Isaac Hayes Way

Saturday morning, the city will formally unveil an honorary street sign renaming Spring Street — at its intersection with North Main Street — “Isaac Hayes Way.”

The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. at the corner of North Main and Spring streets, which was once part of a prominent Black neighborhood.

Covington Alderman John Edwards, a three-time mayoral candidate who has spent nearly a decade organizing the city’s Isaac Hayes tributes, announced the honorary renaming in a statement inviting residents to attend.

“The City of Covington is honorarily renaming Spring Street, ‘Isaac Hayes Way,’ in the North Main Street music district,” Edwards said. “Mr. Hayes is the winner of an Academy Award, [three] Grammy Awards, an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and an induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame as well as a Golden Globe award and other accolades.”

The unveiling ceremony will take place at 10 a.m.

Isaac Hayes Day returns to Frazier Park

The celebration continues Saturday afternoon with the return of Isaac Hayes Day in Frazier Park, an annual tradition Edwards started in 2017 after a Facebook conversation about Hayes’s legacy convinced him Covington needed its own tribute.

What began as a modest gathering has grown into a free, daylong festival of live music, food and vendors that regularly draws crowds back to the park.

Together, the three events mark the largest celebration of Hayes’s legacy the city has seen, pairing the informal, homegrown feel of Isaac Hayes Day with the more permanent gesture of a street named in his honor.