Velvet-Voiced Ferlin Husky Dies at 85

[Fansome]

# The New York Times

March 18, 2011
Velvet-Voiced Ferlin Husky Dies at 85
By BILL FRISKICS-WARREN

Ferlin Husky, the smooth-voiced singer whose 1956 hit “Gone” became the first country single of the Nashville Sound era to cross over to the pop Top 10, died on Thursday at his home in Hendersonville, Tenn. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by Larry Graham, his friend and manager for nearly 40 years. Mr. Husky had been hospitalized for various health problems in recent years.

A monumental outpouring of regret, “Gone” established Mr. Husky as a leading proponent of the lush orchestral sound that became the hallmark of the music being made in Nashville during the late 1950s and early ’60s. Along with hits by Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline, “Gone” helped country music rebound commercially at a time when the teenage-oriented rock ’n’ roll of Elvis Presley and others was cutting into mainstream country record sales.

Mr. Husky had previously recorded an unvarnished take of “Gone,” featuring the pedal steel guitarist Speedy West, for Capitol Records in Hollywood in 1952. Released under the pseudonym Terry Preston at the urging of the label’s representatives, who insisted that Mr. Husky’s real name sounded like a fabrication, the single failed to chart. Four years later, performing under his given name and employing a smooth uptown arrangement, he rerecorded “Gone” for Capitol in Nashville. The single went on to spend 10 weeks at No. 1 on the country charts and climbed to No. 4 on the pop chart.

“I talked them into putting more production on the song,” Mr. Husky recalled in a 1998 interview with the Texas disc jockey Tracy Pitcox. He added that the producer, Capitol’s Ken Nelson, “wasn’t thrilled with the arrangement, but after it became a hit he was proud of the song.”

Mr. Husky had previously topped the country charts in 1953 with “A Dear John Letter,” a duet with the singer Jean Shepard for which he was not originally credited. “Gone,” though, secured his presence on the country airwaves, where from 1953 to 1975 he had 41 Top 40 country hits, including “Wings of a Dove,” which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in 1960 and reached the pop Top 20. He also had a pair of Top 10 country hits performing as Simon Crum, a comedic alter ego.

An affable and photogenic performer, Mr. Husky frequently appeared on popular television shows like “The Tonight Show” and the 1957 movie “Mister Rock and Roll,” which starred the disc jockey Alan Freed and featured Chuck Berry, Little Richard and other performers.

The next year he starred, along with Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rocky Graziano, Faron Young and June Carter, in “Country Music Holiday.” One of the first country singers to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Mr. Husky was also a headliner, with Martha Carson and Mr. Young, at Elvis Presley’s 1955 show at the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis.

Ferlin Husky was born on Dec. 3, 1925, in Cantwell, Mo., an unincorporated area about 60 miles south of St. Louis. He learned to play the guitar from an uncle and began singing at parties and dances as a teenager.

Mr. Husky served in the Merchant Marine in World War II and did some amateur boxing during that time. Returning to St. Louis in 1946, he began performing in public, using the name Tex Terry in deference to his parents, who didn’t want him to be in show business.

He moved to Bakersfield, Calif., to work as a disc jockey in 1947. A year later he signed with Four Star Records, for which he made several singles before moving to Capitol in 1952. Cliffie Stone, a senior Capitol executive, had previously hired him to replace Tennessee Ernie Ford on the television variety show “Hometown Jamboree.” Mr. Husky later joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

The first major country star to come out of the Bakersfield scene that later produced Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, Mr. Husky was also known for his generosity with up-and-coming performers, including Dallas Frazier and Mr. Owens.

“Buck Owens? I dressed him up, putting some decent clothes on him, and got him with Capitol,” Mr. Husky said in a 2004 interview published in the British magazine Country Music People.

Mr. Husky is survived by six daughters, Donna Denson and Julie Smith, both of Gallatin, Tenn., Dana Stone, of Westmoreland, Tenn., Alana Jackson, of Hendersonville, Tenn., Jennifer Lane, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Kelly Wiles, of Canada; two sons, David, of Post Falls, Idaho, and Terry, of Amarillo, Tex.; his companion, the country singer Leona Williams; and 11 grandchildren. A son, Danny, died in 1970.