PORTLAND, TN. (Top40 Charts) - Country music performer Roy Drusky, whose smooth baritone was part of the Grand Ole Opry for 46 years, died yesterday at the
Highland Manor Nursing Home in Portland, Tenn.
Roy Frank Drusky, 22 June 1930, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Drusky showed interest only in baseball during his childhood and high school days. After attending a Cleveland Indians training camp, he decided against it as a career and, in 1948, joined the navy. A country band on his ship gave him an interest in music, and when next on shore leave he bought a guitar and taught himself to play.
In 1950, he left the navy, enrolled at Emory University to study veterinary medicine and sought singing work to pay for the course. He formed a country band called the Southern Ranch Boys and played daily on WEAS Decatur. He later left the university and became a disc jockey on WEAS, the resident singer in a local club and appeared on WLW-A television in Atlanta. In 1953, he recorded for Starday. A year later he left his band, moved as a DJ to KEVE Minneapolis, and continued with club work, but he concentrated more on songwriting.
In 1958, his song "Alone With You" became a number 1 US country hit for Faron Young and led to Drusky becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry, even though he had no hit recordings of his own at the time.
Songwriting, as well as singing, was the eventual cause that brought Roy to Nashville. While working in Minnesota, he had made several trips to Music City to record.
Finally, he got the break he needed with "Alone With You," which jumped into hit territory. Faron Young was also having good luck with the song at the same time. Realizing that he must take advantage of the success generated by his song, Roy moved to Nashville where he could have the opportunity of employing his talents. After a relatively brief period of time, the Grand Ole Opry beckoned him on June 13, 1958, and Roy's name went on the roster of the world's most renowned country music show.
The 1960s were good to Roy Drusky. In 1965, he teamed up with Priscilla Mitchell to record the duet "Yes, Mr. Peters" which became his first No. 1 hit. He enjoyed numerous Top 10 hits on his own, including "I'd Rather Loan You Out," "I Went Out of My Way," "Three Hearts in a Tangle," "Second Hand Rose," "Peel Me a Nanner," "(From Now On All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers," "Such a Fool," "All My Hard Times" and "White Lightning Express."
"White Lightning Express" was from the movie by the same name. Roy sang the title song and appeared in that film as well as in two other country and western films, Forty Acre Feud and The Golden Guitar. When he wasn't in the movies or singing in person and on television, Roy was producing other artists and directing the Nashville office of SESAC, a music licensing firm he helped establish.
A memorial service will be 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3, in Highland Seventh-day Adventist Church on Highway 109, just outside Portland.
