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Tammy Wynette, the First Lady of Country Music, dies at 55Tammy Wynette, age 55, died Monday while napping on her couch at her Nashville home.Her spokeswoman, Evelyn Shriver, said it was believed she died of a blood clot. Wynette is survived by her her husband, four daughters, Gwen, Jackie, Tina and Georgette, a step-daughter Georgie, a stepson Richie, and several grandchildren. She rose from poverty in the Alabama cotton fields to become the first woman in country music to sell more than a million copies, for her 1968 hit `` Stand By Your Man.'' Wynette and the sentiments expressed in her best-known hit song were scornfully cited by Hillary Rodham Clinton in a CBS ''60 Minutes'' television interview before the 1992 U.S. presidential elections. The future first lady said she was not defending her husband from adultery accusations because she was ``some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.'' After outraged protests from country music fans and from Wynette herself, Mrs. Clinton telephoned the country singer to apologize.
``The First Lady of Country Music'' won three Country Music
Association (CMA) awards for top female vocalist and two Grammy
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Barry Goldwater dies at age 89Barry Goldwater, whose failed conservative crusade for the presidency in 1964 changed the political landscape, died Friday -- with friend and foe alike hailing him as an American original. His campaign was the first I actually participated in as a youth. I had encouraged my parents to vote for him because I knew he would loose so big, Goldwater, was a lier but had Democratic backing, would do what Goldwater wanted, but take credit for it. Years later it made me feel so good when my mother told me I had been right and she wished her and Dad had voted for him. The former longtime Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate died at his home of natural causes, two years after suffering a stroke. President Clinton ordered flags on U.S. government buildings flown at half-staff next Wednesday -- the day of Goldwater's funeral. Goldwater was 89 years old and known for blunt, conservative views that once frightened the political establishment but later earned him respect as an elder statesman of American politics. His right-wing campaign for the presidency ultimately wrestled control of the Republican Party from its eastern establishment and inspired Ronald Reagan to enter national politics. ``Ronald Reagan said many times he would not be president without Barry Goldwater,'' Arizona Sen. John McCain said in remembering the man whose Senate seat he now holds. A family spokeswoman quoted Goldwater's widow Susan as saying after his death, ``He is soaring through the skies -- what a pilot he has been,'' a reference in part to his years as an Air Force pilot. His funeral will be held Wednesday on the campus of Arizona State University in nearby Tempe. Clinton called the man with whom he often disagreed, ``truly an American original. ``I never knew anybody quite like him. As all of you know, we were of different parties and also of different philosophies but in the last several years he was uncommonly kind to me and to Hillary. ... he was a great patriot and a truly fine human being,'' he added. Former president George Bush said he and his wife, Barbara, ''are deeply saddened to learn of the death of our dear friend. ... We will always remember him for his devotion to principle, his love of country, his love of family and his steadfast support of the Bush family.'' Former first lady Nancy Reagan said, ``Ronnie and I are deeply saddened ... Barry was a man of tremendous grit and conviction. He was a forward thinker who initiated a crusade that launched a revolution. It wasn't fashionable to be conservative back then but Barry was willing to defy conventional wisdom and inspire us as the conscience of the conservative movement. ... He was ahead of his time.'' Although conservative to the end, especially in opposition to government intervention in people's lives, some of his views might not find a home in today's Republican Party. He supported abortion rights and the rights of homosexuals to serve in the military and criticized right-wing social causes like prayer in the schools and calls for bans on abortion. ``In 1964 he was regarded as the leader of the lunatic right but if he was nominated today as president there would be a right-wing walkout because of his views on abortion,'' said Lars-Erik Nelson, New York Daily News Washington columnist. ``Barry Goldwater envisioned an America where equal rights and liberty extend to all people. ... Many of today's right-wing politicians, who mistakenly call themselves conservatives, can learn a lot about true conservatism by studying him,'' said Human Rights Campaign executive director Elizabeth Birch. Goldwater was the Republican standard-bearer in 1964, running on a slogan of ``In your hearts, you know he's right.'' He went on to a lopsided defeat at the hands of President Lyndon Johnson, who painted him as an extremist. Goldwater won only six states but his ideas later triumphed with the election of Reagan in 1980. While Goldwater was the dean of American conservatives and a key figure in the reshaping of his party, he also was the man who convinced Richard Nixon to quit the White House. He headed a congressional delegation that visited Nixon and told him that he would be impeached if he stayed on in office. Nixon felt that if Goldwater had turned against him, he did not have a chance to remain in office. A master of the blunt retort, Goldwater spoke his mind with Western-movie hero frankness. His most famous remark might have cost him any frail hope he had of winning the White House. Accepting the Republican nomination for president after an ugly convention in San Francisco in which opponents such as Nelson Rockefeller were booed into silence, Goldwater declared: ``Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice! Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.'' That remark, which he remained proud of decades later, frightened the nation. Former President Dwight Eisenhower demanded that Goldwater show up in his hotel room the next morning to explain it, others said it destroyed his chances. It was a true statement. It is sad so few understood it.
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The “King of the Cowboys” was surrounded by family members, including his wife and entertainment partner, Dale Evans, said film critic Leonard Maltin, who was asked by the entertainer’s family to announce the death. Rogers’ death did not come as a surprise, Maltin reported, adding that he had been released from the hospital a couple of weeks ago so he could spend his final days at home. Born Leonard Slye in Cincinnati on Nov. 5, 1911, Rogers launched his entertainment career by forming a singing duo with a cousin after coming to California in 1929 as a migratory fruit picker and truck driver. He later changed his name to Dick Weston and formed a singing group, The Sons of the Pioneers. They appeared on radio shows in Los Angeles. Rogers broke into films in bit roles in 1935, at times in support of Gene Autry, and went on to appear in more than 90 films, often with his beloved palomino Trigger. |
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Rogers and Evans also became one of the most well-known couples in television history via “The Roy Rogers Show,” which aired from December 1951 until June 1957. Its theme song, the enduring “Happy Trails to You” written by Evans, is ingrained in the minds of millions of Baby Boomers who grew up watching the pair on TV. They came back to the small screen in September 1962 with a musical variety show, “The Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Show.” But it lasted only until December of that year. Rogers, who sang well into his 80s, was a highly successful businessman, whose holdings at various times included a TV production company, real estate, a rodeo show, thoroughbred horses and a restaurant chain. Friends and loved ones remember the Western gentleman Gene Autry, considered the first singing cowboy, called Rogers a hero. “Roy Rogers and I worked at Republic Pictures for many years. We have been close friends for half a century. This is a terrible loss for me,” Autry said. “I had tremendous respect for Roy and considered him a great humanitarian and an outstanding American. He was, and always will be, a true Western hero.” |
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Rogers also worked with Mel Torme on his 1979 PBS Christmas special, “The Christmas Songs.” “Roy Rogers was the purest, sweetest cowboy of them all. He was a melodious singer, an easy and relaxed actor and most importantly, a wonderful human being. It was my great pleasure to work with him and to call him friend. America has lost a national treasure,” Torme said. Monte Hale co-starred with Rogers in the “Trail of Robin Hood” in 1950. He told reporters, “He loved livin’. He loved life. I hate to see this happen but he’s out there somewhere, I think, on Trigger.” Like most people his age, President Clinton said he was a fan of the deeply religious Rogers. “I really appreciate what he stood for, the movies he made and the kind of values they embodied and the good-natured spirit that he exhibited all the way up until his last interviews.” Gov. Pete Wilson, who was also born in the Midwest, used to look up to Rogers. “I was very fond of him. He was, first of all, part of my fantasies as a small boy when his screen adventures used to excite me. And I never dreamt then that I would grow up to know him personally, much less that he would be a supporter,” the governor said. “He was a successful entertainer, he was a highly successful business entrepreneur and he was a very concerned citizen. He cared a lot about the kind of California and the kind of America that his children would live in. “He was a doer of good deeds, on and off the screen, and an awfully nice guy, fun to be with, and I am sorry that we won’t have him around.” Funeral arrangements are pending, but a memorial service is set for noon Saturday at a church near Rogers’ home. Donations in his memory may be made to: the Roy Rogers - Dale Evans Museum 15650 Seneca Road, Victorville, CA USA 92392 Condolences can be emailed to Evans’ family at: kingofthecowboys@royrogers.com. |
The Official In Memory of Roy Rogers Page
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