Charley Pride, Country's First Black Superstar, Dies of Covid-19 Complications

[Arkansas Granny]

Charley Pride, whose accolades include membership to the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry, died Saturday (Dec. 12) of complications from Covid-19. He was 86.

Pride is considered country music’s first African American superstar. He scored 29 No. 1 hits between 1969 and 1983 and charted 67 singles in his groundbreaking career. as well as the CMA Entertainer of the Year award in 1971.

Charley Frank Pride was born into a sharecropping family in Sledge, Mississippi, on March 18, 1934. He recalled walking four miles to and from a segregated grade school while white children passed by in school buses. Because his father scorned the roughness and ribaldry of blues music, Pride grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and idolizing such stars as Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb.
http://www.cmt.com/news/1828520/charley-pride-countrys-first-black-superstar-dies-of-covid-19-complications/

[brush]

1. R.I.P., Charlie Pride.

[texasfiddler]

2. RIP Mr. Pride

[gademocrat7]

3. R.I.P. Charlie Pride

[spanone]

4. ...

[MissMillie]

5. RIP Charilie

You'll be kissing the angels "Good Morning"

[ARPad95]

6. I grew up listening to and admiring, Mr. Pride. He was pure class. Very sad!

[MustLoveBeagles]

7. RIP

[Mendocino]

8. RIP

Such a smooth rich voice.

[malaise]

9. Charlie was a big hit in the Caribbean

A giant among giants.

[dhill926]

10. damn....

[Lars39]

11. Mom loved to hear him sing.

They both grew up picking cotton.

[douglas9]

12. Charley Pride: I'm Just Me

American Masters – Charley Pride: I’m Just Me traces the improbable journey of Charley Pride, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi to his career as a Negro American League baseball player and his meteoric rise as a trailblazing country music superstar. The new documentary reveals how Pride’s love for music led him from the Delta to a larger, grander world. In the 1940s, radio transcended racial barriers, making it possible for Pride to grow up listening to and imitating Grand Ole Opry stars like Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. The singer arrived in Nashville in 1963 while the city roiled with sit-ins and racial violence. But with boldness, perseverance and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with music industry insiders into a legacy of hit singles, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Narrated by Grammy-nominated country singer Tanya Tucker, the film features original interviews with country music royalty, including Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker and Marty Stuart, as well as on-camera conversations between Pride and special guests, including Rozene Pride (his wife of 61 years), Willie Nelson and fellow musicians.



https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/charley-pride-im-just-me-full-film/11151/