(CMR) Country legend Charlie Pride passed away earlier on Saturday from Covid-19 complications in Dallas, Texas. He was 86-years-old.
Pride, a son of sharecroppers who rose to grow to be country music’s first Black superstar with hits including “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” and “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” died in hospice care.
Born in Sledge, Mississippi, on March 18, 1934, he was also the primary Black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He credited his father for introducing him to country music by listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio.
He often shared that he got his first guitar on the age of 14 and taught himself to play, but his earliest success actually got here playing baseball. Pride signed with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees, in 1953, and he played for quite a lot of teams on and off over the following decade, including a stint playing within the military, before abandoning his dream of playing in the foremost leagues.
He eventually moved to Nashville and started to pursue a musical profession where he landed a take care of RCA in 1966. Producer Chet Atkins helped launch Pride’s profession, and he scored his first Top 10 hit, “Just Between You and Me,” in 1966.
In 1971, just 4 years after his first hit records, he won the Country Music Association’s entertainer of the yr award — the genre’s highest honor.
Eventually, he had 52 top 10 country hits over several a long time including His No. 1 hits included “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” “I’d Slightly Love You,” “I’ll Be Leaving Alone” and lots of more.
The legendary entertainer won an armload of ACM, CMA and Grammy Awards over the course of his profession, and he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
Last month in Nashville, Mr. Pride received the Country Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to him by Jimmie Allen, a young Black country star. It was his last public performance.
Organizers of the event said they were “following all protocols” for coping with Covid-19, but some in attendance weren’t wearing masks.
He’s survived by his wife, Ebby Rozene Cohran Pride, and his children, Carlton, Charles and Angela.
