Country Music Hall of Fame singer Ferlin Huskey has died in Nashville at the age of 85. Husky was born near Cantwell, a town his website says was “so small it was prone to be mistaken for a fly-speck by map makers.” Cantwell is near the former Flat River, now part of Park Hills, in southeast Missouri.
After serving in World War II, he was a disk jockey in Missouri before heading to California to launch his singing and acting careers.
He was best known for his 1957 hit song “Gone,” which topped the country charts for 10 weeks and was No. 4 on the pop charts. The song is credited by some with beginning the blend of pop and country music that became known as the Nashville Sound. (Go to video of Ferlin Husky performing the song.) He had other hits — “Wings of a Dove,” “A Dear John Letter” (with Jean Shepard), and — recording as Simon Crumm, “Country Music is Here to Stay.”
