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Friends, fans remember country music great Eddy Arnold
05/14/2008 5:00 PM, AP
John Gerome
Country legend Eddy Arnold was remembered Wednesday by fans and friends as a man who brought sophistication and wider popular appeal to his genre by performing tunes like his biggest hit, "Make the World Go Away." Arnold died May 8 at a care facility near Nashville. He was 89. "Eddie Arnold loved to laugh. He loved a joke, and when he laughed, it was loud," his biographer, Don Cusic, said in a eulogy. "But he didn't laugh at himself. He took himself seriously and he took his music career seriously." The Ryman Auditorium's simple wood stage was adorned with flower arrangements as a medley of Arnold's hits including "Cattle Call," "Tennessee Stud" and "Bouquet of Roses" played. His casket was covered with a gray pall bearing a black-and-gold cross designed by his late wife, Sally, and was used at her funeral only a couple of months ago. The service was marked with music: Vince Gill sang "Go Rest High on That Mountain" and Arnold's "You Don't Know Me," the Jordanaires performed "Peace in the Valley" and Jeanine Walker sang "How Great Thou Art." Sony/BMG chairman Joe Galante and Curb Records founder and chairman Mike Curb were among the pallbearers. Gill recalled spending time with Arnold early in his career. "Here's the most successful artist in our history, and he taught you how to be kind and he taught you to be a gentleman. It was a great gift," Gill said. Arnold helped pioneer "The Nashville Sound," merging country and pop styles with lush strings and backing vocals. His success paved the way for later crossover artists like Kenny Rogers. Along the way he picked up all the industry's accolades. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. He was the Country Music Association's first entertainer of the year. A duet with LeAnn Rimes on "Cattle Call" made him the only country artist to have chart records in seven different decades. He was No. 1 in overall success on the Billboard country charts. "He demanded a lot of himself, and he delivered. He was an important reason Nashville became Music City USA, that Music Row became a synonym for country music and Nashville became the capital, the lone star, for those who wanted to be part of this music," Cusic said. Born May 15, 1918 to a sharecropper, Arnold invested wisely over the years and was believed to be one of the wealthiest men in country music. But he was also thrifty — buying used cars and eating at simple diners — and, at times, stubborn. "On the one hand, he was a man who was down to earth and unpretentious, and on the other hand he enjoyed going first class. When he bought an airplane ticket he always bought economy, but when he got to the airport he let them know he was Eddy Arnold so they'd bump him up to first class," Cusic said to loud laughter. His grandson, R. Shannon Pollard, told how his grandfather clung to his family and was always driven to learn and to better himself. "He could never sit still as a young man or as an older man," Pollard recalled. In his last days, he seemed to take comfort in remembering the past. "We like to think it was good times he was thinking about when he left us," Pollard said.
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