Country singer Ray Price dead at 87

[Cincinnatus]

DALLAS (AP) -- Ray Price, one of country music's most popular and influential singers and bandleaders who had more than 100 hits and was one of the last living connections to Hank Williams, died Monday. He was 87.

Price died Monday afternoon at his ranch outside Mount Pleasant, said Billy Mack Jr., who was acting as a family spokesman. Billie Perryman, the wife of family friend and spokesman Tom Perryman, a DJ with KKUS-FM in Tyler, also confirmed his death.

Price was discharged last week from the East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, where he had been in and out in recent months as he was treated for cancer and its complications. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2011 and it has recently spread to his liver, intestines and lungs, the hospital said.

Perhaps best known for his version of the Kris Kristofferson song "For the Good Times," a pop hit in 1970, the velvet-voiced Price was a giant among traditional country performers in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, as likely to defy a trend as he was to defend one. He helped invent the genre's honky-tonk sound early in his career, then took it in a more polished direction.

He reached the Billboard Hot 100 eight times from 1958-73 and had seven No. 1 hits and more than 100 titles on the Billboard country chart from 1952 to 1989. "For the Good Times" was his biggest crossover hit, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard pop music singles chart. His other country hits included "Crazy Arms," ''Release Me," ''The Same Old Me," ''Heartaches by the Number," ''City Lights" and "Too Young to Die."

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=843861

[jmyrlefuller]

Ray was one of the greats and one of my favorite singers.

I was listening to a couple of his songs the other night. I posted a video in the Juke Box from him at age 80, still sounding as fresh as he did 40, 50 years ago. I felt a tear forming in my eye listening to "For the Good Times." That doesn't happen often.

I still like some of his last words: "The doctor said that every man will get cancer if he lives to be old enough. I don't know why I got it – I ain't old!"

Rest in peace, man.