These past 12 months have seen the departures of three of our Country Music Hall of Fame members and three inductees into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as prominent figures from our pop, bluegrass and gospel communities.
Betty Blue 1986.rarl
JERRY GRAY, 78, died Feb. 2.A 30-year veteran on the Washington, D.C. station WAMU-FM, where he played classic country, bluegrass and western swing. (real name: Gerald Ralph Poulsen).
EVERETT LILLY, 87, died May 8.Member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. Fiddler/mandolinist in the acclaimed bluegrass group The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover, who popularized the style in New England, 1952-1970. Formerly a member of the Flatt & Scruggs band and a star on West Virginia radio at WJLS in Beckley. Brother Bea Lilly died in 2005, and thereafter he performed with his sons as Everett Lilly & The Lilly Mountaineers.
RICK MOORE, 62, died June 13.Singer, songwriter and owner of the Nashville blues label MRL Records. Artists with the company included Jimmy Nalls, John Jaworowicz, Blues Co-Op and his own group Rick Hall & Mr. Lucky.
BETTY FISHER, 76, died July 7.One of the first female band leaders in bluegrass music. A lead guitarist, she began her career in the father-daughter duo Buck & Betty in North Carolina in the early 1950s. She retired from music when she married in 1955, but resumed her career and formed Betty Fisher & The Dixie Bluegrass Band in 1972. The group recorded four LPs and toured throughout the 1970s before disbanding in 1980. She briefly resurfaced with a new band and two recordings in the early 1990s and then retired.
JIMMIE WILLIAMS, 80, died Sept. 9.Singer and mandolin player with Mac Wiseman, The Stanley Brothers and The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers. With Red Ellis, he also recorded Holy Cry From the Hills as a bluegrass-gospel duet LP for Starday Records, as well as a number of singles. 2ff7e9595c
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