LifeNotes: Country Songwriter Naomi Martin Passes

Nashville songwriting great Naomi Martin died on May 31 at age 89 following a long illness.

Martin is noted for such BMI Award winning songs as “My Eyes Can Only See As Far As You” by Charley Pride (1976) and “Let’s Take the Long Way Around the World” by Ronnie Milsap (1978). Both of them were No. 1 hits.

She is also outstanding for her longevity in the Nashville music business. Naomi Martin’s career stretched over six decades.

She was a native of Virginia who moved to Nashville with her family in 1966. Within 18 months, she had already written two charted records. During the late 1960s, her songs were recorded by Leona Williams, Jeannie C. Riley, Dee Mullins, Paul Martin and r&b star Johnny Adams.

Martin’s first sizable hit was Jeannie C. Riley’s version of “Roses and Thorns,” which reached No. 15 on the country chart in 1971. Others who recorded her tunes during the 1970s included Jim Ed Brown & Helen Cornelius, Freddy Fender, Kitty Wells and B.J. Thomas. Following Milsap’s hit with the song, “Let’s Take the Long Way Around the World” was recorded as a duet by Kenny Rogers & Dottie West.

In the 1980s, Naomi Martin’s songs were recorded by Ray Price, John Conlee, Porter Wagoner, T.G. Sheppard, Faron Young, Milsap and Barbara Mandrell. One of her most successful co-written songs during this era was “We Fell in Love Anyway,” which was recorded by Cleve Francis & Patti Austin, Lee Greenwood, Rosemary Clooney, Kenny Rogers and David Slater.

Glen Campbell, Conway Twitty, Roy Clark, Twister Alley, Anne Murray, Mandrell and Lorrie Morgan are among the artists who recorded Naomi Martin songs during the 1990s. She also continued to have recordings of her compositions in the 2000s. Eric Hancock, Souls for Christ and Jimmy Payne are among the artists who sang her songs in the first decade of the new millennium.

By this time, her song catalogs with Pi-Gem, Tom Collins Music and Milsap/Galbraith Music had been sold to larger publishers. She founded her own Naomi Martin Music Group, where she signed Blake Shelton to his first song-publishing contract. She helped Shelton to secure his first recording contract and served as executive producer on his earliest studio sessions.

Two of Naomi Martin’s five children became singer-songwriters. Daughter Lisa Dale Yonts recorded as “Dale Daniel” for BNA Records in 1992-94. Son Marty Yonts (1955-2012) had his songs recorded by David Allan Coe and Con Hunley, among others.

Visitation will be held 4-7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 7, at St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church, 4800 Belmont Park Terrace, Nashville, TN 37215. The musical tribute will be held there at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, with a celebration of life service to begin at 2:00 p.m.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to MusiCares or to the Opry Trust Fund.

LifeNotes: Gregg Allman Drew From Nashville Roots To Pioneer The Southern Rock Sound

Gregg Allman. Photo: Sidney Smith

Gregg Allman, a Nashville native who rose to become a member of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, died at age 69 on Saturday, May 27, at his home near Savannah, GA. As the lead singer of The Allman Brothers Band, he was the voice behind such huge fan favorites as “Whipping Post” (1969), “Dreams,” (1969), “Revival (Love Is Everywhere)” (1971), “Melissa” (1972), “Statesboro Blues” (1971) and “One Way Out” (1972). In addition to singing them, he was the writer of the first four songs.

With his tattoos and long blonde hair, Gregg Allman was the visual focus of the band, as well. As a solo artist, he was famed for such performances as “Midnight Rider” (1974), which he also wrote, and “I’m No Angel” (1987). Both as a solo artist and with The Allman Brothers, he was a recurring visitor to Nashville’s recording studios and concert venues.

The Allman Brothers were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. The group received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. It earned seven Gold and four Platinum record awards.

Allman earned an additional two Gold albums for his solo work. Gregory LeNoir Allman was born at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville in 1947, a little more than a year after his brother Duane Allman (1946-1971) was born in the same hospital. Their father died when Gregg was two years old, and the boys were raised by their widowed mother.

In his autobiography My Cross to Bear, Gregg Allman recalled spending a great deal of time at his grandmother’s house on 18th Avenue South, near what is now Music Row. That residence no longer stands. But his mother’s house on Scotland Place off Leake Avenue still exists.

To further her lot in life, she went back to school to become a CPA and sent her sons to Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, TN when Gregg was eight. Gregg and Duane returned to Music City in 1958. They moved with their mother to Florida when Gregg was 12.

Duane developed into an outstanding slide guitarist. Gregg played keyboards and sang. Music took over their lives. Their grades suffered so badly that they were sent back for a second stint at Castle Heights.

Deeply influenced by the blues records they heard on Nashville’s WLAC radio, they formed their Allman Joys band. They spent the summer of 1965 in Nashville being mentored by songwriter John D. Loudermilk (1934-2016).

In 1966, they returned to Nashville for a residency at a club called The Briar Patch. During their stay, producer Buddy Killen (1932-2006) recorded what became the sole LP by The Allman Joys. It contained several of Gregg Allman’s earliest songwriting efforts.

The group became Hour Glass and recorded two LPs in Los Angeles in 1967 and 1968. Gregg remained in California to work on his songwriting while Duane became a session guitarist in Muscle Shoals, AL. In Jacksonville, FL, Duane assembled what became The Allman Brothers Band and urged Gregg to join him there.

After the group relocated to Macon, GA, the million-selling albums At Fillmore East (1971) and Eat a Peach (1972) made The Allman Brothers rock superstars. The band pioneered the style known as Southern rock music. This led to the modern jam-band scene and to festivals such as Middle Tennessee’s Bonnaroo.

The motorcycle-crash deaths of Duane Allman in 1971 and Barry Oakley in 1972 devastated The Allman Brothers Band. Gregg reconstituted the group, which released its biggest hit LP, Brothers and Sisters, in 1973. The band was nominated for a Grammy in 1979.

The Allman Brothers Band recorded its 1981 CD Brothers of the Road in Music City. By then, Gregg Allman had also launched a solo career and become a very public persona via his 1975-79 marriage to Cher.

Allman appeared at Volunteer Jam XII, staged by Charlie Daniels at Nashville’s Starwood Amphitheater, in 1986.

In 1989, he reconstituted The Allman Brothers Band, incorporating Nashville rock musicians Warren Haynes, Allen Woody (1965-2000) and Johnny Neel. The band won a rock-instrumental Grammy Award in 1996. Gregg Allman was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006. In various incarnations, The Allman Brothers persevered until 2014.

Gregg Allman was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2008 and received a transplant in 2010. In 2011, he released a critically acclaimed comeback solo album, the Grammy-nominated Low Country Blues. But lung surgery and addiction recovery sidelined him while promoting it.

He published his autobiography in 2012. It became a New York Times best-seller.

In 2015, he was the focus of All My Friends, a tribute album that included performances by Nashvillians Vince Gill, Eric Church, Brantley Gilbert, John Hiatt, Trace Adkins, Martina McBride and Keb Mo. By then, Allman knew that his cancer had returned, but he kept it from the public.

Allman’s final Nashville appearance was on the live streamed concert series Skyville Live in December 2015. On that show, he was saluted by Chris Stapleton, Little Big Town and Taj Mahal. His last concert was in October last year. In March, he announced that his touring days were over.

Gregg Allman was married and divorced six times. He is survived by wife Shannon and by his five children — Michael Sean, Devon, Elijah Blue, Delilah Island and Layla Brooklyn — as well as by three grandchildren.

According to Variety, Allman will be buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, next to brother Duane and band mate Barry Oakley (1948- 1972). His mother’s ashes will be interred there as well — they have been in his home since her death in 2015.

A posthumous Gregg Allman album, Southern Blood, is scheduled for release in September.

Gregg Allman. Photo: Patricia O’Driscoll

LifeNotes: Former Songwriter Bob Forshee Dies

Bob Forshee

Musician Bob Forshee passed away peacefully at age 80 on Thursday, May 11, surrounded by his family.

Forshee had a 36-year career with State Farm Insurance. But in the early 1960s, he was a Nashville songwriter whose works were recorded by such Grand Ole Opry stars as Jan Howard, Jimmy C. Newman and Skeeter Davis.

He was a 1959 graduate of the University of Missouri who worked as a schoolteacher before moving to Nashville to pursue his songwriting aspirations. Signed by Ray Price’s Pamper Music in 1962, Forshee had a number of songs recorded during the next three years. Burl Ives, Paul Peek, Connie Francis, Jake & Josh, Mac Wiseman, Linda Manning and Sonny Williams were among the artists who released Forshee’s songs.

The songwriter’s biggest copyrights were Darrell McCall’s Top 20 country success “A Stranger Was Here” and Top 30 country hits by Buddy Meredith (1962’s “I May Fall Again”) and Hank Cochran (1963’s “A Good Country Song”).

Forshee also had success in pop and r&b thanks to Etta James recording his “Would It Make Any Difference to You” and “I’d Like to Hear That Song Again” in 1963.

In more recent years, “I May Fall Again” has been revived by Johnny Rodriguez in 1996 and by Paul Pace in 2003.

The songwriter’s Pamper contract evidently expired around 1966. He left music professionally, but played guitar at home for the rest of his life. Survivors include Nancy Stasser Forshee, his wife of more than 50 years, plus daughter Sharon, sons David and Mark, brother Tom and five grandchildren. A celebration of his life was held privately.

A gathering of family and friends is scheduled for Thursday, May 25, from 3 p.m.-7 p.m. at Woodlawn Roesch-Patton Funeral Home, located at 660 Thompson Lane in Nashville.

LifeNotes: Nashville Songwriter Joy Byers Passes

Her official obituary in Gallatin listed her as Joyce Elene Johnston, but as Joy Byers or J. Byers, she was a prolific pop and country songwriter.

Byers died at age 82 on May 10.

Her copyrights include “What’s A Matter Baby,” a 1962 pop hit for Timi Yuro, as well as Brenda Lee’s 1964 pop single “When You Loved Me,” “Wishing It Was You” by Connie Francis in 1965 and the novelty “Ring Dang Doo’ by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs in 1966.

Byers is perhaps best remembered as the writer of the Elvis Presley 1964 hit “It Hurts Me.” She went on to write or co-write 16 songs for Presley’s movies, including the charted “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me’ (1966) and “Let Yourself Go” (1968). Her country top-10 hits included “Gardenias in Her Hair” by Marty Robbins in 1967, “Here Comes Heaven” by Eddy Arnold in 1968 and “I Can’t Say Goodbye” by Marty Robbins in 1969.

Joy Byers is also credited on songs recorded by The Orlons, Arthur Alexander, Gene Vincent, Bill Haley & The Comets, Rick Nelson, Solomon Burke, Steve Alaimo, Hank Locklin, Nancy Sinatra, The 5 Royales, Del Shannon, Betty Everett, Joe Henderson, Anita Bryant, Jimmy Church, Joe Hinton, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis and Big Al Downing, among others.

She was the widow of Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash/Leonard Cohen record producer Bob Johnston (1932-2015).

Joy Byers is survived by son Kevin, three grandchildren and two nieces. According to The Tennessean, a private memorial for her will be held at a later date. Online condolences may be submitted at alexanderfh.info. (real name: Joyce Alene Byers Johnston).

LifeNotes: Guitar Great Corki Casey O’Dell Passes

Musicians Hall of Fame member Corki Casey O’Dell died in Nashville on Thursday, May 11, at age 80.

She was a trailblazer for female session instrumentalists. Vivian J. “Corki” Ray Casey was part of a group of rock ‘n’ rollers who congregated in Phoenix in the late 1950s. When some of her peers went into the recording studio with producer Lee Hazelwood, she accompanied them.

She played rhythm guitar on Sanford Clark’s 1956 hit “The Fool.”

She can also be heard on the rockabilly discs of Jimmy Spellman and on instrumentals by Jimmy Dell. She backed then-husband Al Casey on his 1963 hit “Surfin’ Hootenanny.”

She is perhaps best known for backing Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame member Duane Eddy on his “twangy guitar” hits as a member of his band, The Rebels. “Ramrod” (1957), “Rebel Rouser” (1958), “Forty Miles of Bad Road” (1959), “Because They’re Young” (1960) and “Peter Gunn” (1960) are among these. They made Eddy rock ‘n’ roll’s all-time top instrumentalist.

Corki Casey married Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Kenny O’Dell (Kenneth Guy Gist Jr.) nearly 50 years ago. They moved to Music City in 1969.

He became notable as the writer of such hits as “Behind Closed Doors” (Charlie Rich, 1973), “Mama He’s Crazy” (The Judds, 1984), “What I’ve Got in Mind” (Billie Jo Spears, 1976), “Trouble in Paradise” (Loretta Lynn, 1974) and “Lizzie and the Rainman” (Tanya Tucker, 1975). He also wrote his own top-10 hit as a vocalist, 1978’s “Let’s Shake Hands and Come Out Lovin.’” Kenny and Corki were fixtures at the annual Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame banquets.

In 2014, Corki Casey O’Dell joined Barbara Mandrell and Nashville session guitarist Velma Smith (1927-2014) as the first three female inductees into the Musicians Hall of Fame. She played with joy and abandon on the Municipal Auditorium stage on that occasion, describing it as her “Cinderella night.” It was the first time that she and her lifelong friend Duane Eddy had performed together in five decades.

The museum describes her as “The First Rock-and- Roll Sidechick.”

Corki Casey O’Dell had been in declining health for several months and passed away just two days shy of her 81st birthday.

In addition to Kenny O’Dell, she is survived by her children Diana Rose, Sandra (Chuck) Blevens and Al (Donna) Casey; by seven grandchildren and by five great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be Monday, May 15, 2017, from 4-8 p.m. at Woodbine Funeral Home, Hickory Chapel, 5852 Nolensville Road.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Musicians Hall of Fame.

LifeNotes: Singer-Songwriter Kelley Sallee Snead Passes

Kelley Sallee Snead

Kelley Sallee Snead, known to many for her years working at Music Row businesses and as a regular at “in-the-round” songwriters’ nights, has died at age 58 following a battle with Parkinson’s Disease.

Snead spent 10 years at the Country Music Hall of Fame as the administrative assistant to Kyle Young. After leaving the Hall of Fame, she worked for three years at BMG Music. She also held jobs at music law firms and at Crye Leike Realtors.

She performed often in Nashville nightspots as a singer-songwriter. CCM artist Lisa Daggs Charette, Americana troubadour Lee Domann and the Texas group The Doak Snead Band were among the artists who recorded her songs. She was also a demo singer.

Raised in Oklahoma, she was the daughter of former Reprise and Dot recording artist Vikki Sallee (1941-2013), known as “The Queen of Hillbilly Hollywood.” Snead was the stepdaughter of banjo player Doug Dillard (1937-2012) of The Dillards and Andy Griffith Show TV fame.

Singer-songwriter Doak Snead was once a staff writer for Reba McEntire’s Starstruck publishing company. Kelley and Doak met in 1990 in Nashville and were married in 1992. They had daughter Emma Claire Snead in 1995.

In 1999, Kelley Sallee Snead was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which robbed her of her singing voice and rendered her severely handicapped. Doak Snead compiled his wife’s earlier song demos and work tapes to create her CD Roses & Tumbleweeds in 2015.

Kelley Sallee Snead passed away on Monday, May 8.

She is survived by Doak and Emma, as well as by stepdaughter Rachel McCarty, sister Kristi, brother-in-law James Ritson, aunt Bobbie Rivarde, cousins, nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 13, at Harpeth Hills Funeral Home, 9090 Hwy 100, Nashville, TN, 372221. Her funeral will follow at 2:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in the name of Kelley Sallee Snead to MusiCares, 1904 Wedgewood Ave., Nashville TN 37212.

Read the full obituary here.

LifeNotes: Mega Manager Sandy Gallin Dies

Sandy Gallin Photo: sandygallin.com

Sandy Gallin, the man who guided Dolly Parton in her transition from country hit maker to multi-media superstar, passed away in Los Angeles on Friday, April 21.
He and Parton were partners in the award-winning film and television production company Sandollar. The two were introduced by Mac Davis, another Gallin country-pop client.
During the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, Sandy Gallin was one of the most powerful and connected people in the entertainment business. Among the superstars he worked with as either a manager or a talent agent were Barbra Streisand, Cher, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, Lily Tomlin, The Pointer Sisters, Petula Clark, Mariah Carey, Patti LaBelle, Donny & Marie Osmond, Olivia Newton-John, Korn, Limp Bizkit, KC & The Sunshine Band, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Roseanne Barr and Florence Henderson, among others.
Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, he began his career in the Manhattan mailroom of the General Artists Corporation. He was soon promoted to an agent at G.A.C. His early clients included Rick Nelson, Frankie Avalon, Phyllis Diller, Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell.
He signed and promoted the then-unknown Richard Pryor, Tiny Tim, Joan Rivers and Mama Cass Elliott. He was also part of the G.A.C. team that booked newcomers The Beatles onto “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964.
G.A.C. moved him to the West Coast in 1968. In the 1970s, he founded his own management company. He signed Whoopi Goldberg, produced her award-winning TV specials and guided her to the 1984 movie The Color Purple.
He signed Parton in 1976, and the two became inseparable. Using his connections, she crossed over to the pop charts with “Here You Come Again” in 1977 and co-starred in 9 To 5 and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as her first movies in 1980 and 1982.
Gallin and Parton formed Sandollar Productions in 1985. The company’s 1989 documentary, Common Threads: Stories From the AIDS Quilt, won an Oscar. As a result of the film’s theme, Gallin openly acknowledged being gay, becoming one of the earliest Hollywood figures to do so.
Sandollar also produced the movies Sabrina (1995), Father of the Bride (1991), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992, as well as its subsequent hit TV series), Kicking and Screaming (1995) and I.Q. (1994). Gallin and Parton also produced her movies Rhinestone (1984) and Straight Talk (1992), as well as her variety ABC TV series of 1987-88.
The company also produced many TV specials featuring such stars as Andrew Dice Clay, Harvey Fierstein and Neil Diamond.
Sandy Gallin was known for his lavish, star-studded parties and for his sense of style. He began working in real estate in 1998. He bought, restored and re-sold estate properties and became a high-end interior designer.
When he moved out of management, Parton was hurt by his desertion, but the two soon rekindled their deep friendship.
Parton posted on her website: “Sandy, you may be in heaven now, but you will never be gone from me. In the words of my own song, I will always love you.”
Sandy Gallin reportedly died of multiple myeoloma. He was 76 years old.

LifeNotes: Tour Manager Jan Elliott Passes

Jan Elliott

Jan Elliott, tour manager/lighting director, passed away from cancer on Sunday, April 9, at the TriStar Alive Hospice. Elliott, who most recently served as tour manager for Janis Ian, has worked with Emmylou Harris, The Dixie Chicks, Michelle Wright, The Bee Gees, and The Eagles.

A celebration of life has been set for Friday, April 14, at 2157 Riverway Drive, Old Hickory, TN 37138, from 4 p.m.-7 p.m.

“I have had the good fortune to have always been surrounded by great musicians, tour managers, lighting directors and other team members throughout my career so …it is with deep sadness that I share that Jan Elliott who was my tour manager and lighting director for many years passed away today,” said Michelle Wright. “The last 11 years found her courageously fighting against cancer. We travelled the world together and had so many great times together. She was simply a beautiful human being. Rest In Peace dear sweet Jan.”

 

LifeNotes: Gospel Legend Ben Speer Dies

Gospel Music Hall of Fame member Ben Speer died in Nashville on April 7 at age 86.

He was a mainstay of the legendary Speer Family, the music director of the popular Gaither Homecoming video series, a prominent gospel music publisher, a co-worker with both Elvis Presley and Hank Williams, a recording studio owner and a record-label executive.

The Speer Family was known as “the first family of gospel music” due to its astonishingly long career and its many breakthroughs and innovations. The group was formed in 1921 by Ben’s parents George Thomas “Dad” Speer (1891-1966) and Lena Brock “Mom” Speer (1899-1967) along with Dad’s sister Pearl and brother-in- law Logan Claborn.

At the time, white gospel acts in the South were almost always exclusively male. The Speers made history by featuring female singing. Indeed, Lena and Pearl were the powerful, dominant voices in the group.

When the Claborns dropped out in 1925, the founders’ oldest son Brock Speer (1920-1977) and daughter Rosa Neil (b. 1922) were recruited to join the act at the ages of five and three, respectively.

During the 1930s, daughter Mary Tom Speer (1925-2014) was added to the group. Ben Speer, born in 1930, was the youngest child. He was singing with the family by the end of the decade.

In 1941, The Speer Family became popular on WSFA radio in Montgomery, Alabama. Their morning gospel program was followed by one performed by newcomer Hank Williams. Ben and his family were scandalized when Hank arrived for his show after all-night carousing in honky-tonks.

The Speers moved to Nashville in 1946, just in time for the post-war explosion in popularity of Southern-gospel music. That same year, the family’s youngest member formed The Ben Speer Music Company at age 16. Ben’s firm was the first to publish Southern-gospel music in sheet-music form.

The Speer Family began recording in 1947. During the next 50 years, the group recorded for such labels as Bullet, Columbia, RCA Victor, Starday, Benson, Sing, Heart Warming, Skylite, Vista, Riversong and Homeland. More than 75 Speer Family albums have been marketed.

In 1948, Rosa Nell left the group for marriage and motherhood. Brock Speer’s wife Faye replaced her.

Nashville’s WSIX radio featured The Speer Family on weekly weekend gospel shows for eight years in the 1950s. In 1954, the group became a gospel pioneer on television. For the next six years, it was familiar to a generation of Nashvillians as a fixture of daily, early-morning local TV on Channel 5. This was the first gospel daily TV show in history.

Due to her marriage and a desire to start a family, sister Mary Tom departed around 1954. Ben, Brock and Faye pressed on with Mom and Dad.

Both Mary Tom and her “retired” sister Rosa Neil occasionally returned to sing with the family and/or worked in the Speer business office on Music Row.

In 1956, Ben, Brock and tenor singer Gordon Stoker were recruited to sing backup on recording sessions by RCA’s newest signee, Elvis Presley. As a result, Ben Speer sang on such early Elvis hits as “Heartbreak Hotel,” “I Was the One” and “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.”

Next, The Speer Family became national TV personalities as regulars on the syndicated Singing Time in Dixie weekly show beginning in 1964.

After Dad and Mom passed away, Ben and Brock became the leaders of The Speer Family. They took it to new heights, and Ben became the act’s lead singer.

The brothers adopted a series of Speer “sisters,” several of whom went on to have successful solo gospel careers. Ben Speer’s sons Stephen and Darin, and Brock’s children Suzan, Marc and Brian all became Speer Family participants as well.

Beginning in 1967, the Speers became regulars on the syndicated TV series “Gospel Singing Caravan” and were signed by gospel’s most prominent record companies. The exposure magnified the group’s popularity enormously.

Among the songs associated with The Speer Family are “Standing By the River,” “My Lord Will Lead Me Home,” “Heaven’s Jubilee,” “I’m Building a Bridge,” “Saved to the Uttermost,” ”He’s Still in the Fire,” “The King Is Coming,” “What Sins Are You Talking About” and “I’ll Meet You in the Morning.”

The group’s 1977 hit “I’m Standing on the Solid Rock” — published by Ben Speer — reportedly holds the record as the longest-lasting No. 1 song on the gospel charts. Its 1984 hit “City Coming Down” made history as gospel’s first concept music video.

During the 1970s and 1980s, when Ben and Brock were guiding The Speers, they won 14 Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association and were nominated for seven Grammy Awards.

Ben Speer retired from the group in 1993, but continued to be a prominent figure in the gospel-music business. He became the general manager of the Stamps-Baxter School of Music and opened his Ben Speer Recording Studio. As music director of the Bill Gaither Homecoming gospel video series, Ben endeared himself to dozens of veterans of that genre who sang on the shows.

Brother Brock Speer finally folded The Speer Family in 1998, after its unprecedented, unparalleled and unsurpassed 77-year career. The durable group had gone from traveling via horse-and- buggy to Model T Ford to customized tour bus.

The Speer Family was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998, following the individual inductions of Dad (1971), Mom (1972), Brock (1975) and Ben (1995). Ben Speer is also a member of the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

The gospel-music legend is survived by sister Rosa Neil Speer Powell, by wife Rebekah Long Speer, by sons Stephen and Darin and by several grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends on Monday, April 10 from 4-7 p.m. at Woodlawn-Roesch- Patton Funeral Home at 660 Thompson Lane.

The visitation there on Tuesday (April 11) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. will be followed by a Celebration of Life service at The First Church of the Nazarene, 510 Woodland Street. Interment will follow at Woodlawn Memorial Park.

Serving as pallbearers are Dave Clark, Gene McDonald, Tim Reid, Mike Allen, Brian Speer, Marc Speer, Tom Powell, Shannon Fontaine and Per Norstrand.

LifeNotes: Country Radio Great Rhubarb Jones Passes

Rhubarb Jones

Country Disc Jockey Hall of Fame member Rhubarb Jones has died at age 65.

Warren “Rhubarb” Jones was a legendary broadcasting figure in Georgia. He was the longest lasting morning radio host in the city’s history. In addition, he spearheaded a number of high-profile charity initiatives.

He was well known to the Nashville music industry as a former board member of both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. Between 1993 and 2005, he was the host of the Georgia Music Awards gala.

Jones was born in Miami, Florida, but grew up in Tallapoosa, Georgia. He was a graduate of the University of West Georgia and earned a masters degree at Shorter College. During his 36-year radio career, he had on-air stints at WLWI in Montgomery, Alabama; WSKY in Asheville, North Carolina; WWCC in Bremen, Georgia and WCLS in Columbus, Georgia.

He is best known for his long tenure at Y107 and Eagle 106.7 in Atlanta. He was there from 1985 to 2008. For the past nine years, he has been on the communications faculty at Kennesaw State University.

For more than two decades, he ran a celebrity golf tournament and an annual Rhubarb Jones March Across Georgia event. These raised more than $4 million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Along with Randy Owen of Alabama, Jones established the Country Cares for St. Jude’s Kids fundraiser. He was also a 20-year local host of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Rhubarb Jones died following a heart attack on Sunday, April. 2.

He is survived by daughters Presley Frances Jones and Callie Reeves Jones, by sons David and McCole and by four grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Miller Funeral Home in Tallapoosa, GA.