[msb-alumni] Country Star Roy Clark Dead at 85 of Pneumonia
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2018 14:23:26 -0500
BlankCountry Star Roy Clark Dead at 85 of Pneumonia
Country star Roy Clark, the guitar virtuoso and singer who headlined the
cornpone TV show "Hee Haw" for nearly a quarter century and was known for such
hits as "Yesterday When I was Young" and "Honeymoon Feeling," has died. He was
85. Publicist Jeremy Westby said Clark died Thursday due to complications from
pneumonia at home in Tulsa, Okla.
Clark was "Hee Haw" host or co-host for its entire 24-year run, with Buck Owens
his best known co-host. The country music and comedy show's last episode aired
in 1993, though reruns continued for a few years thereafter.
"Hee Haw won't go away. It brings a smile to too many faces," he said in 2004,
when the show was distributed on VHS and DVD for the first time.
Clark played the guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica and other
instruments. His skills brought him gigs as guest performer with many top
orchestras, including the Boston Pops.
In 1976 he headlined a tour of the Soviet Union, breaking boundaries that were
usually closed to Americans. And of course, he also was a member of the Grand
Ole Opry.
His hits included "The Tips of My Fingers" (1963), "Yesterday When I Was Young"
(1969), "Come Live With Me" (1973) and "Honeymoon Feeling" (1974).
He was also known for his instrumental versions of "Malaguena," on 12-string
guitar, and "Ghost Riders in the Sky."
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009, and emotionally
told the crowd how moving it was "just to be
associated yourself with the members of the Country Music Hall of Fame and
imagine that your name will be said right along with all the list."
In his 1994 autobiography, "My Life in Spite of Myself," he said "Yesterday,
When I Was Young" had "opened a lot of people's eyes not only to what I could
do
but to the whole fertile and still largely untapped field of country music,
from
the Glen Campbells and the Kenny Rogerses, right on through to the Garth
Brookses and Vince Gills."
Clark was guest host on "The Tonight Show" several times in the 1960s and 1970s
when it was rare for a country performer to land such a role.
His fans included not just musicians, but baseball great Mickey Mantle. The
Yankees outfielder was moved to tears by "Yesterday When I Was Young" and for
years made Clark promise to sing it at his memorial -- a request granted after
Mantle died in 1995.
Beginning in 1983, Clark operated the Roy Clark Celebrity Theatre in Branson,
Missouri, and was one of the first country entertainers to open a theater
there.
Dozens followed him.
He was a touring artist as late as the 2000s. Over the years, he played at
venues around the world: Carnegie Hall in New York, the Sporting Club in Monte
Carlo, the Grand Palace in Brussels and the Rossiya Theatre in Moscow.
Clark was born in Meherrin, Virginia, and received his first guitar on his 14th
Christmas. He was playing
in his father's square dance band at age 15. In the 1950s, Clark played in
bands
in the Washington, D.C., area. In 1960, he got the chance to front the band of
country singer Wanda Jackson. He also performed regularly in Las Vegas.
He got his first recording contract, with Capitol Records, in 1962. He
appeared on Jimmy Dean's TV show "Town and Country Time" and took over the show
when Dean left.
In 1997 he released "Roy Clark's Christmas Memories."
Clark and Owens worked together for years, but they had very different feelings
about "Hee Haw. Owens, who left the show in 1986, later referred to it as a
"cartoon donkey," one he endured for "that big paycheck."
Clark told The Associated Press in 2004 that "Hee Haw" was like a family
reunion. "We became a part of
the family. The viewers were sort of part owners of the show. They identified
with these clowns, and we had good music."
Clark said the hour-long program of country music and corny jokes capped off
his
career.
"This was the icing on the cake. This put my face and name together."
*****
Pickin', grinnin' 'Hee Haw' host sizzled on strings By Juli Thanki, Nashville
Tennessean
Country Music Hall of Fame member and versatile entertainer Roy Clark died
Thursday at his Tulsa, Oklahoma, home after complications from pneumonia, his
publicist said. He was 85.
A fleet-fingered instrumentalist best known for his 24 years as a "Hee Haw"
co-host, Clark was one of country music's most beloved ambassadors. He brought
heart and humor to audiences
around the world, guest-hosted "The Tonight Show," worked with greats such as
Hank Williams and blues artist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and inspired countless
pickers, including a young Brad Paisley, with his instructional guitar books.
Roy Linwood Clark was born April15, 1933, in Meherrin, Virginia, and learned
how to play banjo at an early age, but it was the guitar that spoke to him.
"When I strummed the strings for the first time, something clicked inside me,"
he told The Tennessean in 1987. In his teens, he won banjo-playing
championships, and in 1949, he worked briefly on a show fronted by Williams. As
a solo
artist, Clark's breakout hit in 1963 came when his version of Bill Anderson's
"Tips of My Fingers" hit No. 10 on the country charts, and he found crossover
success with the 1969 smash "Yesterday, When I Was Young. (In 1995, he
performed
that song at Mickey Mantle's funeral.) Clark's role as Buck Owens' overall-clad
comedic foil on "Hee Haw," combined with hits such as "Thank God and Greyhound"
and "Come Live with Me," endeared him to country audiences in the '70s.
In 1973, he won the Country Music Association's award for entertainer of the
year; later in the decade, he won a slew of CMA honors for instrumentalist
of the year, both as a solo musician and with Buck Trent.
He was the first country star to open a theater in Branson, Missouri. The Roy
Clark Celebrity Theater opened in 1983 -- the same year he won the Grammy Award
for best country instrumentalist performance for his recording of "Alabama
Jubilee."
Clark joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1987 and was inducted into the Country Music
Hall of Fame in 2009 alongside Barbara Mandrell and Charlie McCoy.
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