Country legend Porter Wagoner dies
By Don Rhodes | Staff Writer
Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 11:01 a.m. The death of 80-year-old Porter
Wagoner from lung cancer Sunday night at a Nashville, Tenn., hospice
marked the passing a giant of country music.
Augustans saw him perform many times in the 1960s and '70s in Bell
Auditorium with his duet partner, Dolly Parton, whose career he gave
an enormous boost through his nationally syndicated TV show and their
many hit duets.
It was Mr. Wagoner who had the guts to invite Augusta's James Brown
as an Opry guest artist at a time when black singers on the Opry were
a rarity (and still are).
For that appearance March 10, 1979, Brown sang Your Cheating Heart,
Tennessee Waltz, Georgia and a medley of his soul music hits.
"Porter used to walk behind the mules plowing up the fields and
singing to himself," Brown said. "A guy heard him announcing himself
like he was on the Grand Ole Opry and told him, 'That's the closest
to the Opry you'll ever get.' I can relate to that. My own daddy told
me that I'd never make it by singing. My own daddy told me that."
Mr. Wagoner loved to be up close and personal with the people who
bought his albums and tickets to his concerts. When he was the host
for the cable televised portion of Opry broadcasts, he would work his
way down the theater aisles while shaking hands with fans as he sang.
"I've never taken being on the Grand Ole Opry for granted, and I
never will," he said in a telephone interview in 1979. "It's a
feeling like no other place on Earth. There are times when I am tired
and I just want to do a show and go home, but I still never take the
Opry or my fans for granted."
He made his first recording for RCA -- his record company for most of
his career -- on Sept. 19, 1952, in the studios of radio station WKTO
in Springfield, Mo. He recorded his first Nashville session for RCA
on Feb. 14, 1953.
Company's Comin' was the single that opened the doors for Mr.
Wagoner, but it was Satisfied Mind in 1954 that made him a star.
He apparently made his first appearance in Augusta's Bell Auditorium
on Jan. 21, 1956, with Marty Robbins, Ray Price, Tommy Collins,
Charline Arthur and Sonny James.
When he performed at Bell on Nov. 9, 1968, he had with him a cute
blonde named Dolly Parton, whom he had hired the previous year for
his stage and syndicated TV shows. Little Jimmy Dickens and Waylon
Jennings also were part of that show.
I met him when he and Ms. Parton performed at Bell on Jan. 17, 1972,
with Hank Williams Jr., Faron Young, Tammy Wynette and George Jones.
"I think the duets Dolly and I did were great," he said. "We had such
a good blend. I sang harmony on most of them, and she sang the lead.
People forget, though, I also did duets with Norma Jean and Skeeter
Davis, and I probably will do some more duets in the future with
someone else."
In late October 1995, television viewers of the Opry were treated to
a historic moment when Ms. Parton and Vince Gill sang a duet of Ms.
Parton's I Will Always Love You.
Then she called out Mr. Wagoner to repeat the chorus and told him, "I
wrote this for you," publicly acknowledging what fans had long known.
As the resulting standing ovation from the Opry House audience
subsided, Mr. Wagoner called Ms. Parton back on stage and told her
enthusiastically, "I've never had a rush like this before in a long,
long time, kiddo."
It could be said that for more than 50 years Porter Wagoner gave that
same kind of musical rush to his own fans."
Don Rhodes has written about country music for 37 years. He can be
reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@....
From the Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 online edition of The Augusta Chronicle