MARTY ROBBINS

Ralph Emery, who became known as the dean of country music broadcasters over more than a half-century in both radio and television, has died.

Pride, who became the first black artist to dominate country music charts with hits like Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’, died at age 86 in Dallas, Texas on December 12. A top player in baseball’s famed Negro Leagues before entering music, Pride performed at the Grand Ole Opry in 1967 when the Civil Rights Movement raged in the US. Blacks had no place in country music which had its audience in the South, a region that was still largely segregated. Interestingly, singer J C Lodge covered Someone Loves You Honey, a song Pride recorded in 1978. Charley Pride received the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Country Music Association in November at its annual ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee.