Country music star George Jones dies
On this day in 2013 legendary country singer and songwriter George Jones whose numerous hit songs include White Lightning Walk Through This World With Me and He Stopped Loving Her Today dies at age 81 in Nashville.In a career that spanned nearly 60 years Jones had more than 140 Top 40 country hits including 14 No.1 songs.
Praised by many in the country music world as the greatest country singer of all time Jones also was known for his hard-drinking lifestyle and stormy marriage to third wife and fellow singer Tammy Wynette (1942-98) with whom he recorded such duets as Were Gonna Hold On and Golden Ring.Fellow country musician Waylon Jennings once sang of Jones If we all could sound like we wanted to wed all sound like George Jones.Born into a poor family in Saratoga Texas on September 12 1931 Jones began singing and playing guitar as a boy and performing on local radio as a teenager.A disc jockey nicknamed Jones Possum for his close-set eyes and turned-up nose.
Jones married briefly and served in the Marines in the early 1950s before signing with a record label and releasing his first single in 1954.He had his first top-five country hit the following year with Why Baby Why and his first chart-topper with 1959s White Lightning.He went on to record a slew of hits including The Window Up Above (1960) Tender Years (1961) She Thinks I Still Care (1962) The Race Is On (1964) and Walk Through This World With Me (1967).In 1969 Jones married country star Tammy Wynette best known for her hit single Stand by Your Man (1968).
The couple recorded and toured together during and after their turbulent marriage which was hurt by Jones substance abuse issues and ended in divorce in 1975.Their hit duets included The Ceremony (1972) Were Gonna Hold On (1973) (Were Not) the Jet Set (1974) Golden Ring (1976) Near You (1976) and Two Story House (1980).The last album they recorded together was 1995s One.Off stage Jones made headlines for his erratic behavior and drinking and drug use (following one bender Jones wife hid his car keys so he drove a motorized lawn mower to a liquor store).
He missed so many scheduled appearances he was dubbed No-Show Jones.However in the 1980s Jones started to turn his life around marrying for the fourth and final time curbing his excessive habits and recording such hit songs as He Stopped Loving Her Today (1980) which earned him a Grammy Award for best male vocal performance and was named song of the year by the Country Music Association.Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992 and published a best-selling autobiography I Lived to Tell It All in 1996.In 1999 he drove his SUV into the side of a bridge near his Tennessee home and was nearly killed.
The music icon later pleaded guilty to DWI and reportedly sobered up for good.He continued to record and tour into the 21st century.In 2008 Jones was honored by the Kennedy Center and in 2012 he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.On April 26 2013 Jones died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he had been admitted the previous week with a fever and irregular blood pressure.
His funeral was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville with politicians former first lady Laura Bush and numerous country stars in attendance.
