Country music legend Charley Pride dies at 86

 Charley Pride, country music's first Black superstar, has died of complications from coronavirus at 86.

Pride, kwn for hits like "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" and "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone", died Saturday in Dallas, Texas, according to a statement shared on singer's official website.

Born a sharecropper's son in Sledge, Mississippi, on March 18, 1934, Pride emerged from Sourn cotton fields to also become first Black member of Country Music Hall of Fame.

Veteran country singer and Pride's friend, Dolly Parton was among first to pay tributes on social media.

 

Singer-songwriter Billy Ray Cyrus remembered Pride as a "gentleman, legend and true trail blazer".

Calling late icon a "great one", Australian singer Keith Urban said Pride was among country's first music voices he heard on his family's record player.

I sang many of his songs in my cover band days, and so it was surreal to finally be on st with him at our All For Hall concert playing 'Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'.

After a stint in US Army, time working at a Missouri smelting plant, and some unsuccessful attempts to break into big-league baseball, Pride came to Nashville in 1963 and me demonstration recordings with help from manr Jack Johnson.

Those recordings languished for two years until Johnson met with producer Jack Clement, who offered songs for Pride to learn. On August 16, 1965, Clement produced Pride at RCA Studio B, and results of that session impressed RCA Records' Chet Atkins, who signed Pride to a recording contract.

Ar two years later, Pride's recording of Clement's Just Between You and Me entered into country's Top Ten, and he quit his job as a smelter.

Pride was also a trailblazer who emerged during a time of division.

In his memoir, he wrote that we're t color blind yet, but we've vanced a few paces along path and I like to think I've contributed something to that process.

Between 1967 and 1987, Pride delivered 52 Top 10 country hits, won Grammy awards, and became RCA Records' top-selling country artiste.

He won Country Music Association's Entertainer of Year award in 1971, its top male vocalist prize in 1971 and 1972, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.

Pride's final performance came on vember 11, 2020, when he sang Kiss An Angel Good Mornin during CMA Awards show at Nashville's Music City Center with Jimmie Allen, a modern-day hitmaker who counts singer among his heroes.

He is survived by his siblings; his wife of over 60 years, Rozene Cohran; and ir children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, family has asked for donations to Pride Scholarship at Jesuit College Preparatory School, St Philips School and Community Center, Food Bank, or charity of one's choice.

(IM CREDITS:AP)