Music Publicist & Non-Profit Leader Cathy Gurley Passes

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Cathy Gurley

Veteran Music Row publicist Cathy Gurley died suddenly on Tuesday (Jan. 20) at age 76.

During her long tenure as a music industry figure, she worked with such stars as Tanya Tucker, Garth Brooks, Kathy Mattea, Marty Stuart, and Gary Morris. Since 2012, she has been the CEO of You Have the Power. Founded by former Tennessee First Lady Andrea Conte, this organization’s mission is to empower victims of violent crimes. Gurley also served on a number of other social-service boards.

Born in Pittsburgh, Gurley attended Wheeling College in West Virginia. She edited the school’s newspaper while working on her degree. This led to becoming a reporter at the Wheeling News-Register.

In 1974, she became the publicist for WWVA radio and co-founded its Jamboree in the Hills festival. She supervised the design, planning, promotion, publicity, and advertising of this annual event for eight years as it grew into one of the largest country-music festivals in America. In 1976, she received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in the radio category for “Care and Feeding of America.”

The Country Music Association’s board of directors met in Wheeling in 1982. Executive Director Jo Walker-Meador was impressed with Gurley and offered her a job.

Gurley came to Nashville in 1982 to become the Director of Public Information for the CMA. She promoted its annual TV awards show, Fan Fair (which became the CMA Music Fest), Close-Up magazine and 25th-anniversary gala in Washington, D.C.

Her jobs at the Jamboree and at the CMA put her in touch with virtually every artist, record label, manager, and booking agent in Nashville. In 1985, she launched her own firm, Gurley & Co. In addition to publicity, her company handled marketing, management, or promotion, depending on the artist. Clients eventually included Mattea, Stuart, Tucker, Morris, Connie Smith, Patty Loveless, Lynn Anderson, and Carlene Carter, among others.

When Jimmy Bowen took over Capitol/Liberty Records in 1990-95, he named her the label’s Vice President of Creative Services. Then he outsourced all of the company’s publicity functions. Gurley & Co. was hired to represent the label’s entire roster, including Brooks, Tucker, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Suzy Bogguss, Billy Dean, John Berry, Chris LeDoux, Charlie Daniels, and more than a dozen others.

Gurley became close to her mentor, Frances Preston. Among that executive’s chief interests was the cancer research underwritten by the T.J. Martell Foundation. In 1993, Gurley became one of the founding board members of the charity’s Nashville branch. She worked in 1994-2008 on its Country In the Rockies annual fund-raising events for the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at Vanderbilt. After Preston’s retirement, Gurley spent many days with the late Country Music Hall of Fame member, helping her to begin a memoir.

She was selected for the 2001 Leadership Music class. In 2002, she helped to launch the Spirit of America tours. These brought entertainment to more than 100 military bases around the world and co-starred Daniels, Miranda Lambert, Billy Ray Cyrus, Aaron Tippin, Dierks Bentley, and dozens of others.

Gurley became an adjunct faculty member at both Belmont University and Middle Tennessee State (MTSU). In 2011, she joined the board of directors for the revitalized Wheeling Jamboree on WWVA in West Virginia.

During this period, Gurley became ever more active in Music City’s crime issues. She became a member of the Nashville Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Sexual Offender Treatment board, the Domestic Death Review board, and ACES of Nashville.

She helped to launch Voices from the Garden, remembering the children lost to violence in Davidson County. She developed school curricula to heighten awareness of sex trafficking, delinquency among at-risk youths, and domestic violence. She also worked with Friends of Warner Park, McNeilly Center for Children, and StandUp2Cancer. In 2012, she became the CEO of You Have the Power.

Gurley was honored at the 2018 SOURCE Hall of Fame awards. These are given annually to outstanding Nashville music-business women. Brenda Lee inducted her, and Tanya Tucker participated via video.

She began experiencing gastrointestinal issues last fall. Her condition worsened and despite numerous specialists, tests, hospitalizations, and procedures, doctors were unable to diagnose her condition. She was recently hospitalized and was moved to the ICU where she passed away.

Gurley is survived by her daughter, Meagan Sullivan, five grandchildren, two sisters, two brothers, six nieces and five nephews.

A Funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, March 14 at 11:00 a.m. at Christ the King Catholic Church (3001 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37212) with a reception immediately following. Donations can be made to She Should Run or the Children’s Memory Garden at Centennial Park Nashville.

Robert K Oermann
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