By the time Whisperin’ Bill Anderson asked a crowd full of Grand Ole Opry members to raise their glasses for a toast Friday night, the country music institution was working on a quick turnaround. The early show — the first of two on the night celebrating the Opry’s official 100th birthday — had run half an hour longer than scheduled, and most of the nearly 30 artists who took the stage to celebrate were sticking around for the second performance, but this moment was as important as any that happened on stage.

“To 1925 and all that was,” the 88-year-old Anderson declared. “To 2025 and all that is, and to a hundred years from tonight for all that there may be, long live the Grand Ole Opry.”

Moments earlier, the same artists Anderson — who is the longest-tenured Opry member with 64 years

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