Roy Acuff, whose fancy fiddle playing and stirring songs such as "The Wabash Cannonball" earned him the title "the king of country music," died Monday. He was 89.
Acuff, who had been hospitalized several times in recent months, most recently Oct. 30, died at 2:35 a.m. of congestive heart failure, Baptist Hospital said in a statement.Acuff joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938 and became the greatest star in the fabled history of the country music show. When not playing the fiddle, he did snappy yo-yo tricks for audiences.
In the 1940s, Acuff was so popular he was nominated for Tennessee governor and his name became part of a battle cry chanted by Japanese troops in World War II.
Singer George Jones said Acuff had been his idol from the time he was 6 or 7. "When I came to the Opry for the first time in '56 he was the most kind, gentle man I'd ever met . . .," Jones said Monday. "He's put out a lot of wonderful, great music for so many years."
Said Porter Wagoner: "I think he'll be missed probably more than any entertainer or singer ever has in the history of our business, because Roy Acuff was certainly known worldwide. . . . I don't think anyone will ever replace Roy Acuff."