LEGENDARY MUSICIAN AND SINGER EDDY ARNOLD passed away this morning (Thursday) in Nashville, Tennessee.  The famed “Tennessee Plowboy” would have been 90 years old next week on May 15.

Born in 1918 in Henderson, Tennessee, his father died when he was young and the family became sharecroppers.  Purchasing a guitar through the Sears, Roebuck catalog, he learned to play well enough to accompany his naturally-smooth singing voice and he started traveling to barn dances to pursue his dream as a singer.  His “day job” during these early years was an ambulance driver for the local funeral home.

Working his way up the entertainment ladder by going from radio station to station, his first big job came in 1940 when Pee Wee King, another future Country Music Hall of Famer, hired him to play and sing with his band, the Golden West Cowboys.

It was then that he met his wife of 66 years, Sally Gayhart, and they were married in November, 1941.  She predeceased him by only two months.

His recording career is legendary, selling over 85 million records, 28 of them were #1 hits.  He also introduced the concept of “crossover” music with his recordings of country tunes done with a pop sound charting in both the country and the pop music charts.  He also had more singles that “charted” than any other recording artist.  In 1947, two of his records held the #1 position for the entire year.

In 1948, all of his nine singles went into the Top Five, and five of them went to number one, including “Anytime,” “What a Fool I Was,” “Texarkana Baby,” “Just a Little Lovin’ (Will Go a Long, Long Way),” “My Daddy Is Only a Picture,” and “Bouquet of Roses,” which stayed at the top for 19 weeks.  He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. 

He also was seen frequently on television, having his own show for a while, doing guest work on countless others, and even acting as a substitute host on the Johnny Carson show, second only to Joey Bishop in the number of appearances.

A good biography of his life and successes is on the CMT website HERE.
Wikipedia entry HERE.

Nashville Channel 4 has a video report:

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