Porter Wagoner
Porter Wayne Wagoner (August 12, 1927 – October 28, 2007)[1] was an American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour.
Porter Wagoner
Porter Wayne Wagoner
Mr. Grand Ole Opry
August 12, 1927
West Plains, Missouri, U.S.
October 28, 2007 (aged 80)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Singer, songwriter, musician
1951–2007
RCA Victor (1951–1980)
Shell Point (2000–2002)
TeeVee (2003–2006)
Anti (2007)
In 1967, he introduced singer Dolly Parton on his television show, The Porter Wagoner Show. She became part of a well-known vocal duo with him from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.
Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954 to 1983. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.[2]
Biography[edit]
Early life and career[edit]
Wagoner was born in West Plains, Missouri, United States,[1] the fifth and last child, as well as the second son of Bertha May (née Bridges) and Charles E. Wagoner, a farmer.[3] His first band, the Blue Ridge Boys, performed on radio station KWPM-AM from a butcher shop in his native West Plains, where Wagoner cut meat.[2] In 1951, he was hired by Si Siman as a performer on KWTO in Springfield, Missouri.[4] This led to a contract with RCA Victor.[1]
With lagging sales, Wagoner and his trio played schoolhouses for the gate proceeds; but in 1953 his song "Trademark" became a hit for Carl Smith,[2] followed by a few hits of his own for RCA Victor. Starting in 1955, he was a featured performer on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield.[1] He often appeared on the show as part of the Porter Wagoner Trio with Don Warden and Speedy Haworth. Warden, on steel guitar, became Wagoner's long-time business manager. In 1957, Wagoner and Warden moved to Nashville, Tennessee, joining the Grand Ole Opry.[4]
Chart success[edit]
Wagoner's 81 charted records include "A Satisfied Mind" (No. 1, 1955), "Misery Loves Company" (No. 1, 1962), "I've Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand" (No. 7, 1962–1963), "Sorrow on the Rocks" (No. 5, 1964), "Green, Green Grass of Home" (No. 4, 1965), "Skid Row Joe" (No. 3, 1965–1966), "The Cold Hard Facts of Life" (No. 2, 1967), and "The Carroll County Accident" (No. 2, 1968–1969).[2]
Among his hit duets with Dolly Parton were a remake of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind" (1967), "We'll Get Ahead Someday" (1968), "Just Someone I Used to Know" (1969), "Daddy Was An Old Time Preacher Man", (1970), "Better Move it on Home" (1971), "The Right Combination" (1972), "Please Don't Stop Loving Me" (No. 1, 1974) and "Making Plans" (No. 2, 1980).[5] He also won three Grammy Awards for gospel recordings.
Television series[edit]
His syndicated television program, The Porter Wagoner Show, aired from 1960 to 1981.[1] There were 686 30-minute episodes taped, the first 104 (1960–66) in black-and-white and the remainder (1966–81) in color. At its peak, his show was featured in over 100 markets, with an average viewership of over three million.[6] Reruns of the program air on the rural cable network RFD-TV and its sister channel in the UK Rural TV.
Personal life[edit]
Wagoner was married twice, to Velma Johnson for less than a year in 1943 and to Ruth Olive Williams from 1946 to 1986, though they separated 20 years before the divorce. He fathered three children, Richard, Denise, and Debra.[10]
Wagoner died from lung cancer[11] in Nashville on October 28, 2007, with his family and Dolly Parton at his side.[12] Wagoner's funeral was held November 1, 2007, at the Grand Ole Opry House. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville.
Legacy[edit]
Dolly Parton performed a concert at her theme park Dollywood in Wagoner's memory after his death.[13]
Porter Wagoner Boulevard, a road in his native West Plains, Missouri, is named in his honor.[14]
In 2013, the television show Drunk History presented a brief summary of Wagoner's relationship with Parton.[15]
Dan Cooper at AllMusic noted, "As for his music, after signing with RCA in 1952 he produced a wealth of superb hard country, and just as much of the most wretchedly oversentimentalized tripe you'll ever want to hear. The latter, of course, is half the reason he's loved".[1]