Family’s Champion Patsy Stoneman Dies At 90

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Patsy-Stoneman-Murphy

Patsy Stoneman Murphy.

Singer, bandleader and tireless proponent of her family’s musical legacy, Patsy Stoneman Murphy died last week.

The daughter of Country Music Hall of Fame (CMHoF) member Ernest V. “Pop” Stoneman, she was a recording artist, a pioneer bluegrass female, a preserver/popularizer of the autoharp and a colorful personality. She was 90 when she passed away Thursday morning (July 23) at her home in Manchester, Tenn.

After her father died, Patsy assumed leadership of the family band The Stonemans. She campaigned for the next four decades for Pop’s induction into the CMHoF. Pop Stoneman (1893-1968) was finally inducted in 2008.

Patsy played guitar, jaw harp and banjo, in addition to autoharp. She was the family’s historian who saved most of its memorabilia while also maintaining her own musical career. She was born in 1925, the year her father became one of country music’s first million-selling artists. His “The Titanic” was a blockbuster hit that year, and it remains the most famous song about the 1912 ocean-liner disaster.

In 1927, he was the star who drew others to the Bristol, Tenn. recording sessions where Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family were discovered. Although one of country’s earliest stars, he fell upon hard times during The Depression of the 1930s.

The Stonemans had 23 children, 13 of whom survived to adulthood. Several of the children became musicians. Patsy and older brother Eddie (1920-2001) began performing comeback shows with their father around 1939.

More offspring joined Pop during the “folk revival” of the 1940s and 1950s. Scott Stoneman (1932-1973) became a world-champion fiddler. Donna Stoneman is a renowned mandolin virtuoso. Roni Stoneman became a famous comic on TV’s Hee Haw.

After a time spent away from music, Patsy again performed with The Stonemans in 1964-65. She became one of the voices in the Country Bear Jamboree animatronic show at Disneyland.

But Patsy was initially better known as the leader of her own group, beginning in 1963 in the Washington, D.C. area. This made her perhaps the first female bluegrass bandleader in history.
Meanwhile, Pop and her siblings moved to Nashville. The Stonemans had a string of country chart singles in 1966-68. They launched their own nationally syndicated TV show in 1966-67, and Patsy became a frequent guest on it. In 1967, The Stonemans were the CMA’s first Vocal Group of the Year winners. Pop died the following year.

At this point, Patsy took over as the leader of the family group and moved to Nashville. She recorded with The Stonemans on such LPs as A Stoneman Christmas (MGM, 1969), Dawn of The Stonemans’ Age (RCA, 1970), In All Honesty (RCA, 1970) and California Blues (RCA, 1971). In 1981, she assembled 17 extended family members and produced the acclaimed CMH Records double-LP The First Family of Country Music. Patsy’s husband John “Jack” Murphy became manager of the group.

Brothers Van (1940-1995) and Jimmy (1937-2002) were both singers in The Stonemans. Following their deaths, Patsy moved more and more to the forefront. With Donna and/or Roni, she recorded For God and Country (1990), The Stoneman Tradition (2012) and a number of other albums. In 1987, she also launched At Home With The Stonemans as a weekly show on WSVT radio in Smyrna, Tenn.

“I am not ready to hang up any of our instruments yet,” she said of her ongoing efforts to promote the family’s music. “We have too much to offer the country music business to just throw up our hands and quit.

“Besides, we have been in the business longer than anybody else, and it just wouldn’t be fair to Daddy to stop.”

She spearheaded the creation of Ivan M. Tribe’s 1993 book, The Stonemans. A number of reissues of Pop Stoneman’s music also kept his memory alive. Supported by all country historians, she campaigned relentlessly for her father.

Patsy Stoneman Murphy’s feisty, outspoken, fearless, funny and frank personality made her a media favorite. After her lively acceptance of her father’s induction into the CMHoF, fellow honoree Emmylou Harris exclaimed, “Patsy Stoneman, you are the BOMB!”

Patsy Stoneman Murphy is pre-deceased by her husband of 39 years, John “Jack” Murphy. She is survived by sisters Roni and Donna Stoneman. Visitation will be at Mount Olivet Funeral Home on Monday, July 27, 5-8 p.m. and on Tuesday, July 28, 11 a.m.-1.p.m. Her funeral service and internment will be held immediately following on Tuesday.

Southern Music Great Buddy Buie Remembered

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Buddy Buie

Perry Carlton Buie (1941-2015)

A memorial service yesterday (July 22) in Eufala, Alabama remembered the contributions of Southern-music mainstay Buddy Buie.

Buie, the force behind both The Classics IV and The Atlanta Rhythm Section, died near there on Saturday July 18. He was 74.

Although he spent most of his career in Atlanta, the producer, manager and songwriter had several ties to Nashville. In addition to many soft-rock hits, he wrote songs recorded by Music City’s Sonny James, Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt and Wynonna Judd, among others.

Born Perry Carlton Buie, he was raised near Dothan, AL. He left Auburn University to pursue a career in music. He first recording studio work was producing singer-songwriter Bobby Goldsboro in Birmingham. The two moved to Nashville, where Goldsboro became a member of Roy Orbison’s band, and Buie became the star’s road manager.

In the mid 1960s, Goldsboro launched his successful solo career, while Buie remained with Orbison and his Candymen. Orbison recorded Buie’s “Afraid to Sleep” in 1965, and Tommy Roe made the charts in 1964 with the songwriter’s “Party Girl.” In 1967, Sandy Posey had a pop hit with his cowritten “I Take It Back.”

Meanwhile, The Candymen got their own recording contract with ABC. Buie produced the group’s 1967 and 1968 LPs and cowrote The Candymen’s only charting single, “Georgia Pines.”
Some of the Candymen formed The Classics IV. Buddy Buie produced all of this group’s hit records. His songwriting collaborator became guitarist J.R. Cobb, and the pair created the group’s 1967-72 hits: “Spooky,” “Traces,” “Stormy,” “Every Day With You Girl,” “Change of Heart” and “What Am I Crying For.”

In 1972, “Traces” became a country hit for Sonny James. Such artists as Ronnie Milsap, Brenda Lee, Gloria Estefan, Bobby Vinton, Johnny Mathis, Mel Torme, The Letterman, Billy Paul and Steve Lawrence have also recorded versions of this song. Buie and Cobb’s cowriter on “Traces” was Emory Gordy Jr., who became a prominent Nashville producer, musician and label executive.

“Spooky” has since been recorded by Dusty Springfield, Andy Williams, David Sanborn, Lydia Lunch, Meco, John Legend and Joan Osborne, among others. Carlos Santana revived “Stormy.”

During his Classics IV period, Buddy Buie was also writing pop singles for B.J. Thomas—“Most of All” (1970) and “Mighty Clouds of Joy” (1971)—as well as another one for Posey, “Something I’ll Remember” (1968). In addition, he produced the 1969 Billy Joe Royal hit “Cherry Hill Park.”

Throughout his hit writing years, Buie and his collaborators would travel to his fishing retreat near Eufala, AL, which was a three-hour drive from Atlanta. The majority of his successful songs were created there.

In the 1970s, he formed BGO Records and the Studio One recording studio in Doraville, GA. Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded its 1973 debut LP at the studio (“Free Bird,” “Gimme Three Steps,” etc.). So did Alicia Bridges (1978’s “I Love the Night Life”), whom Buie co-managed. Buckner & Garcia’s million-selling “Pac-Man Fever” was issued by BGO Records in 1981.

The “house band” at Studio One was created when Buddy Buie took the core of The Classics IV and formed The Atlanta Rhythm Section. These musicians backed others in the studio while working under Buie’s supervision to craft their own albums.

He both managed and produced the group, which eventually rose to the front ranks of Southern rock bands. The ARS had major hits with Buie’s songs “So In To You” (1977), “Imaginary Lover” (1978), “I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight” (1978), “Do It Or Die” (1979) and “Alien” (1981), as well as a remake of “Spooky” (1979).

Buddy Buie began commuting to Nashville in the 1980s. Wynonna scored a major country hit in 1994 with his “Rock Bottom.” Garth Brooks recorded “Mr. Midnight.” Travis Tritt recorded Buie’s cowritten “Homesick” and “Back Up Against the Wall.”

Buie was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1984. The Alabama Music Hall of Fame welcomed him in 1997.

In 2003, the songwriter/producer retired to Eufala, the birthplace of the songs that forged his career. He suffered a heart attack there and died in a hospital in Dothan, AL. He is survived by wife Gloria, son Ben, daughter Belinda Davis, stepson Hunter Sheridan, brother Jerry, sister Gloria Moring and five grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were handled by Chapman Funeral Home in Eufala. Yesterday’s memorial service was conducted at Eufala’s First Baptist Church, and the visitation afterward was held at the Eufala Country Club.

Former WSM-AM PD Al Wyntor Passes

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candle lifenotes11Local radio and TV personality Al Wyntor passed away peacefully Sunday (July 5). He was 68.

Born Irvin Rusley in Carrington, ND, Wyntor became a Music City TV staple in the late ‘80s as co-host of TNN’s Video Morning show. He later hosted the syndicated radio show Nashville Insider, which aired on dozens of country stations around the country.

He is survived by his children, Jim (Amy) Rusley, Jeni Rusley, Chris (Brandy) Rusley, and Lindie Rusley, and nine grandchildren. The family will receive friends on July 9 from 10 a.m.- 12 p.m. at Hillsboro Church of Christ, 5800 Hillsboro Pike in Nashville and a celebration of life will be conducted at 12 p.m. Interment will follow in Middle Tennessee Veterans Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Wounded Warrior Project. 

Guitarist Jack Eubanks Passes

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jack eubanks recordOne of Nashville’s most successful session guitarists, Jack Eubanks, died on Wednesday, July 1 at age 78.

Eubanks was the session leader on six of the million-selling albums by Alabama. He played guitar on recordings by such superstars as Kenny Rogers and Charley Pride. He also recorded several solo albums and was a member of The Nashville Guitars, a group that recorded for Monument Records.

He appeared on the television shows of Jimmy Dean and Leroy Van Dyke, as well as on the Grand Ole Opry. He also worked on TV’s Hee Haw.

Jack Eubanks was the longtime producer of the legendary gospel act The Chuck Wagon Gang.

His session credits include records by Ed Bruce, Billy Parker, Leona Williams and Wynn Stewart, as well as such non-country artists as Connie Francis, The Platters, Louis Armstrong and Mike Douglas. He worked for four decades in Nashville’s recording studios.

Eubanks is survived by five children, nine grandchildren, one great-grandchild, a brother and a sister. His memorial celebration is 1-3 p.m. on Monday, July 6, at Goodlettsville Church of Christ, 401 Main St., Goodlettsville, TN 37072.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests honoring his memory by planting a tree or by donating to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Jack Eubanks was a resident of Silver Point, TN. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Huddleston Horner Funeral Home in Cookeville, TN (931-526-6111).

Song Great Red Lane Passes

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Red Lane.

Red Lane

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Red Lane has passed away at age 76.

Lane died Wednesday night, July 1, following a long battle with cancer. He is noted as the creator of such big hits as “Til’ I Get It Right” (Tammy Wynette, 1973), “Darling You Know I Wouldn’t Lie” (Conway Twitty, 1969) and “New Looks From an Old Lover” (B.J. Thomas, 1981).

Born Hollis DeLaughter on Feb. 9, 1939, he was a native of Bogalusa, Louisiana. His sharecropper father taught him to play guitar. The family moved around a lot, following farming seasons. Lane graduated high school in Indiana and joined the Air Force.

Trained as an airplane mechanic, he also performed music throughout his enlistment. While stationed in Hawaii, he performed on the Waikiki radio show Hawaii Calls. While stationed in Omaha, Nebraska in 1958, he began performing in area nightclubs six nights a week.

Following his discharge, Red Lane performed in Indiana, California, Arizona and Texas. Inspired by Willie Nelson, he began writing songs at this time. Singer-songwriter Justin Tubb urged Lane to send his songs to Tree Publishing in Nashville.

Tree’s Buddy Killen signed him as a staff songwriter in 1963 and helped Lane to move to Music City. Tubb hired him as a guitarist in his band. Red Lane scored his first songwriting hit when Faron Young took his “My Friend On the Right” up the charts in 1964.

Nelson recorded Lane’s “Blackjack County Chain” in 1967. Dottie West had a hit with their co-written “Country Girl” in 1968. The song inspired a series of popular Coca-Cola ad jingles for West. Red Lane became her bandleader, and the two collaborated on dozens of other songs.

Lane’s first top-10 success came when Waylon Jennings recorded “Walk On Out of My Mind” in 1968. He repeated the feat with Eddy Arnold’s recording of “They Don’t Make Love Like They Used To” in 1969. Twitty’s 1969 recording of “Darling You Know I Wouldn’t Lie” inspired Elvis Costello to re-record the song in 1994.

Bobby Bare, Roger Miller, Jack Palance, Wanda Jackson, Lee Hazelwood & Ann-Margret, Jimmy Dickens, Tommy Cash, Jack Greene & Jeannie Seely, Johnny Paycheck, George Jones, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, T.G. Sheppard and Connie Smith were among the many who recorded Red Lane songs in the 1960s and 1970s.

The songwriter also became a Nashville session guitarist. Chet Atkins signed him as a recording artist to RCA, and Lane scored a moderate-sized hit with “The World Needs a Melody” in 1971. The song was subsequently a single for Johnny Cash and was also recorded by The Kingston Trio, Bill Anderson, Mother Maybelle Carter, The Chuck Wagon Gang and others.

Lane’s other charted singles as an artist were “Set the World On Fire (With Love)” (1971), “It Was Love While It Lasted” (1972) and “Throw a Rope Around the Wind” (1972). The last named was on the soundtrack of the Robert Mitchum movie Going Home.

Red Lane and Merle Travis co-wrote the “Ride This Train” segments on The Johnny Cash Show on ABC-TV in 1969-71.

After Wynette hit the top of the charts with “Til I Get It Right” in 1973, the song was recorded by dozens of others, including Kenny Rogers, Englebert Humperdinck, Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna Judd, Millie Jackson, Solomon Burke, Bob Dylan and Highway 101.

Later in the decade, Lane forged a musical partnership with Merle Haggard, who recorded nearly 30 Red Lane songs. These included 1977’s “Ain’t Your Memory Got No Pride at All” and the 1979 hit “My Own Kind of Hat” (revived by Alan Jackson in 1999). Lane also played guitar on Haggard recording sessions and sometimes toured in the superstar’s band.

In 1981, B.J. Thomas hit No. 1 with Lane’s “New Looks From an Old Love” and John Conlee scored with “Miss Emily’s Picture.” Keith Whitley released Lane’s “Would These Arms Be in Your Way” in 1987, and the song was then recorded by Vern Gosdin, Mark Chesnutt, Daryle Singletary and more.

Others who recorded his songs in the 1980s and 1990s included Loretta Lynn, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Van Shelton, Ray Charles, Doug Stone, Jack Greene, Joe Diffie, Skip Ewing, Waylon Jennings and Suzy Bogguss. Red Lane was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993.

Lane’s success continued into the new millennium. George Strait had a hit with his “Tell Me Something Bad About Tulsa” in 2003. His songs appeared on albums by Lee Ann Womack, Reba McEntire, Joan Osborne, The Del McCoury Band and more. In 2010, he was honored at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s “Poets & Prophets” songwriter series.

The tunesmith led a colorful, unconventional lifestyle. He lived in an airplane fuselage grounded near Ashland City, TN and was an avid skydiver.

 

Condolences To Fount Lynch And Family

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candle lifenotes11Sincere condolences to Sony Music Nashville VP Media Fount Lynch and his wife Krystal, who recently suffered a late-term pregnancy loss.

Their son John-Thomas L Lynch was laid to rest in Fosterville, Tenn. on Wednesday, June 17.

Also mourning the loss are big sisters Naomi and Cordi. The family is recovering at home.

Cards of condolence may be sent to Fount and Krystal Lynch c/o Sony Music Nashville, 1400 18th Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37212.

LifeNotes: Nashville Edition Founder Delores Dinning

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Delores Dinning Edgin

Delores Dinning Edgin

Prolific Music City session singer Delores Dinning Edgin passed away on Wednesday, June 17 at age 86.

As a founding member of the backup vocal group The Nashville Edition, she sang on thousands of country recordings of the 1960s and 1970s. The group was also the “house” harmonizers with the staff band on TV’s Hee Haw for 25 years.

She was one of nine children born into a musical farm family who worked in Kentucky, Kansas and Oklahoma in the 1920s and 1930s. Older sister Marvis became a singer with the Freddy Owen Orchestra. In 1939, the Dinnings moved to Chicago to further the ambitions of her other siblings.

Sisters Lucille (Lou) Dinning and twins Eugenia (Jean) and Virginia (Ginger) formed The Dinning Sisters and became members of the cast of the National Barn Dance on Chicago’s WLS radio station in 1941. They began making hit records for Capitol in 1945. Lou quit the act in 1945, and teenager Delores began filling in as a Dinning Sister in 1949.

She moved to Nashville and became a hugely successful studio singer. She also filled in as one of the LaDell Sisters on the Grand Ole Opry in the 1950s. Little brother Mark Dinning became another family success when he had the giant pop hit “Teen Angel” (written by sister Jean Dinning) in 1960.

Delores Dinning Edgin’s work in The Nashville Edition kept her constantly busy for approximately 30 years in Nashville studios. In 1980, she helped to form the Music City Christian Fellowship. This is the organization that stages the gospel service/show at the close of the annual Fan Fair / CMA Music Festival celebrations. She resided in Springfield, Tenn.

Delores is preceded in death by her parents and all eight of her siblings. She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Bill Edgin, as well as by daughter Lea Ann Gallardo, son Tracy Edgin and grandson Michael Edgin.

Visitation will take place at Anderson & Garrett Funeral Home in Joelton on Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. until the funeral service at 3 p.m. Interment will follow at Orlinda Cemetery.

LifeNotes: King of the Party Pat Patrick Passes

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pat patrick

Pat Patrick. Photo: Pat Patrick Facebook

Pat Patrick left his mark on the music business as a studio owner, record producer, jingle writer, song publisher, recording artist and, most famously, as the leader of Nashville’s top party band.

Patrick passed away on Tuesday, June 16. The music he made in The Pat Patrick Band formed the soundtrack for thousands of society functions, weddings, collegiate events and private parties. His various groups bearing his name could entertain doing pop oldies, r&b “beach music,” rock ’n’ roll or big-band swing. Many of the finest session musicians of Music Row performed in his ensembles over the years.

Born Richard Corry Patrick III, he was a Nashville native who graduated from Montgomery Bell Academy in 1965. He formed his first band, Saturns Combo, when he was a teenager and was soon playing gigs at Hillwood Country Club, Belle Meade Country Club, high-school dances and fraternity parties. Around 1968, the group changed its name to The Fabulous Beech Nut Show Band. Next, it was known as The Kracker Jacks Show Band.

pat patrick in tennesseanAfter his graduation from Vanderbilt University, he expanded the group several times. During the 1970s, The Pat Patrick Band specialized in cover versions of rock hits. In 1978, the group’s increased size allowed it to graduate to swing music. The Pat Patrick Band recorded a number of albums on its own label.

Meanwhile, Pat Patrick became more and more involved in the business of Music Row. At first, he worked for the independent label Certron Records. He then became the creative director of the recording studio Audio Media. In addition to attracting the top artists in Nashville as clients, the facility became the home of his commercial jingles business.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Patrick produced more than 5,000 jingles for such companies as Holiday Inn, GMC, Chevrolet, Disneyland, Goodyear, Tidy Cat, K-mart and Buick, as well as many local businesses. Several of these earned Addy Awards.

He formed a close relationship with the Disney company. This led to producing and performing on a series of children’s albums, including Mousercize, Rock Around the Mouse and Mickey Mouse Disco. These records have earned him more than 30 million-seller awards.

Audio Media became Cal IV Music. Patrick purchased the Ray Stevens studio on Grand Avenue and renamed it Grand Central Studios in 1983. Here, he began producing such Christian-music stars as First Call, Steve Green, Bruce Carroll and Amy Grant.

He next co-founded the publishing company the Grand Music Group. Among the company’s copyrights were “High Cotton” (Alabama), “1982” (Randy Travis), “What’s Going on in Your World” (George Strait) and “Out of Your Shoes” (Lorrie Morgan).

In recent years, the entrepreneur has been the creative director of Pearl Trax Studios, Patilison Tunes and Pat Patrick Music.

He is survived by Dr. Elizabeth Cato and daughters Mary and Ellie. Visitation will be today, Thursday June 18, from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at Woodlawn Roesch-Patton Funeral Home. His memorial service is Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church with visitation an hour prior at the church.

Honorary pallbearers will include SAE fraternity brothers, The Pat Patrick Band and the MBA Class of 1965. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Kathleen Patrick Hughes Endowed Scholarship of Education at the University of Alabama, Box 870231, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0231.

Memorial For Former Sound Stage Owner Ron Kerr Set For Saturday

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candle lifenotes11Ronald W. Kerr, who previously owned Sound Stage recording studio in Nashville, died June 8, 2015. He was 78.

The studio hosted landmark recordings by Garth Brooks, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams Jr., Reba, The Oak Ridge Boys, Waylon Jennings and numerous others. Legendary producer Jimmy Bowen leased the studio from Kerr.

A native of Detroit, Mich., Kerr was an accomplished businessman who worked in real estate and music. He was also an avid sailor, winning the J-24 Class, U.S. Championship twice. Kerr was a trumpeter and gentleman farmer, and a devoted husband, father and grandfather. Friends and family say they will miss his vivacious spirit and love for life.

Kerr was preceded in death by parents Walter and Eleanor Burr Kerr. He is survived by loving wife Gwyneth B. Kerr; daughter Bonnie S. Kerr; sons Ronald S. (Wendy) Kerr, Robert W. (Lisa) Kerr and Donald W. Kerr; grandchildren Peter, Madeline, Amelia, Rowan, Daphne, Brianna and Veronica; and Marion Stahl Kerr of Miami, FL, mother of his children.

The cause of death remains unconfirmed, but according to reports he passed away from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

A life celebration will be held Saturday, June 13, 2015, 5 to 7 p.m. at Sound Stage Studios (10 Music Cir. S., Nashville, TN 37203).

Today Black River Entertainment owns Sound Stage.

Arrangements by Williamson Memorial Funeral Home & Gardens, 3009 Columbia Ave., Franklin, TN 37064.

Grand Ole Opry Star Jim Ed Brown Passes

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JimEdBrown

Jim Ed Brown, a star of the Grand Ole Opry for more than fifty years and a newly elected member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, died Thursday, June 11th at Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, TN after battling cancer.

Mr. Brown scored major country hits as a solo artist, as a duet singer, and as a member of The Browns with sisters Maxine and Bonnie. The Browns’ 1959 crossover hit “The Three Bells” topped Billboard’s country chart for ten consecutive weeks, and it spent four weeks atop Billboard’s all-genre singles chart.

“If you listen to The Browns, it’s a very pretty sound,” Mr. Brown said earlier this year, in an interview with Peter Cooper of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “It was sibling harmony, a sound that was very pleasing. I’ve never heard anybody that could come close to that particular sound. It couldn’t be imitated.”

James Edward Brown was born April 1, 1934, in Sparkman, Arkansas. He spent the first decade of his life on a farm, without electricity or running water. On Saturday nights, the family would tune a battery operated radio to WSM-AM (650) and listen to the Grand Ole Opry. As a teenager, Jim Ed would mimic the vocal styles of Opry stars – his Hank Snow impersonation was particularly effective – and in 1952 Maxine entered him into a talent competition at KLRA radio in Little Rock. He didn’t win the contest, but was asked back to appear on the station’s Barnyard Frolic show. Soon, he invited Maxine to sing with him on the Frolic, and their harmonies impressed touring musician Wayne Raney, who championed Jim Ed and Maxine to record labels. In 1954, they signed with Abbott Records and recorded their first Top 10 country hit, the Jim Ed-and Maxine-penned “Looking Back to See.” Bonnie Brown soon joined her siblings, and the duo became a trio.

JimEdBrown2As The Browns, Jim Ed, Maxine, and Bonnie notched Top Twenty country hits with “Here Today and Gone Tomorrow,” “I Take the Chance,” “Just As Long As You Love Me,” “Money,” “I Heard the Bluebirds Sing,” “Would You Care,” and “Beyond the Shadow.” But in 1959 the trio was pondering retirement. Mr. Brown’s service in the U.S. Army and the sisters’ family lives had distracted musical attentions, and Mr. Brown was running his father’s sawmill. The Browns—who by then were signed to RCA Records—told producer Chet Atkins that they were thinking of quitting the music business, but Atkins asked them to come to Nashville and record again.

“Chet asked if there was anything we wanted to do that we hadn’t recorded,” Mr. Brown said. “We told him about a song called ‘The Three Bells’ that we sang coming from Pine Bluff to Nashville. We recorded it, and after the session Chet said, ‘You kids may think you’re about to retire, but I think you’ve just recorded the biggest song we’ve ever done.’”

Mr. Brown was driving a truck in Arkansas in 1959 when he parked, walked into a drive-in to buy a Coca-Cola, and heard “The Three Bells” playing on the radio. The song resonated with country and pop audiences, impressed and inspired the Beatles, and ensured that Mr. Brown need not spend his life at the sawmill. The Browns joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1963, on the strength of “The Three Bells” and follow-ups including “Scarlet Ribbons (for Her Hair),” “The Old Lamplighter” and “Send Me the Pillow You Dream On.” But in 1967, Maxine and Bonnie decided to retire. Mr. Brown stayed in Nashville as a solo artist on RCA, and he recorded his signature solo song in 1967 with “Pop a Top,” a No. 3 country single that was later revived by Alan Jackson on Jackson’s Under the Influence album.

From 1967 through 1974, Mr. Brown also reached the Top Ten of the country charts with singles “Morning,” “Southern Loving,” “Sometime Sunshine” and “It’s That Time of Night.” In 1976, he began recording duets with Helen Cornelius, logging a No. 1 country hit with “I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You.” With Cornelius, Mr. Brown won a CMA Vocal Duo of the Year award and reached country’s Top 10 with “Saying Hello, Saying I Love You, Saying Goodbye,” “If the World Ran Out of Love Tonight,” “Lying in Love with You,” Fools,” and “Morning Comes Too Early.”

Mr. Brown’s easygoing manner made him an effective host on the Opry and on numerous television programs. He helmed shows including the syndicated Nashville on the Road and The Country Place and The Nashville Network’s You Can Be a Star and Going Our Way. In 2003, he began hosting syndicated radio program, Country Music Greats Radio Show.

In September 2014, Mr. Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer. While he was undergoing treatments, Plowboy Records released In Style Again, Mr. Brown’s first solo effort in 40 years. Fellow Opry stars Vince Gill and Sharon and Cheryl White joined him on the critically acclaimed album. In March 2015, Mr. Brown and The Browns were elected along with Grady Martin and The Oak Ridge Boys as the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“Fame is fleeting, hit records change every week, award show winners and nominees change every year, but being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame will be forever,” Mr. Brown said, in response to receiving country music’s highest honor. The Browns’ official induction will come in October, but CMA CEO Sarah Trahern, Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson, and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young visited Mr. Brown in the hospital on June 4 to present him with a medallion commemorating his Hall of Fame membership.

Mr. Brown died at peace with himself and with his place in country music.

“I’ve always loved to sing,” he said. “My grandmother nicknamed me ‘Jaybird,’ because I’d go around singing all the time. I’ve gone through some hard times, but some good times, too. If push comes to shove, I’ll do it again.”

The funeral service for Brown will take place on Monday, June 15 at 10 a.m. at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The service is open to the public with doors opening at 9:30 a.m. Interment will follow immediately at Woodlawn at 660 Thompson Ln. and is also open to the public. Visitation over the weekend is private for family and close friends.