Ray Price (singer)
Noble Ray Price (January 12, 1926 – December 16, 2013)[1] was an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone is regarded as among the best male voices of country music,[2] and his innovations, such as propelling the country beat from 2/4 to 4/4, known as the "Ray Price beat", helped make country music more popular.[2]
Ray Price
Noble Ray Price
The Cherokee Cowboy
January 12, 1926
Wood County, Texas, U.S.
December 16, 2013 (aged 87)
Mount Pleasant, Texas, U.S.
- Singer
- songwriter
- musician
- Vocals
- guitar
1948–2013
Some of his well-known recordings include "Release Me", "Crazy Arms", "Heartaches by the Number", "For the Good Times", "Night Life", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me". He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. He continued to record and tour into his 80s.
Early life[edit]
Ray Price was born on a farm near the small former community of Peach, near Perryville, Wood County, Texas.[3] He was the son of Walter Clifton Price and Clara Mae Bradley Cimini. His grandfather, James M. M. Price, was an early settler in the area. Price was three years old when his parents divorced and his mother moved to Dallas, Texas. For the rest of his childhood he split time between Dallas and on the family farm, where his father had remained.[1] Price's mother and step-father were successful fashion designers and wanted him to take up that line of work but it had little appeal to him.[4]
Price began singing and playing guitar as a teenager but at first chose a career in veterinary medicine. He was attending North Texas Agricultural College in preparation for that career when his studies were interrupted by America's entry into World War II.[1] Price was drafted in 1944 and served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater.[1] He returned to the college after the war and, in 1972, was honored as a distinguished alumnus.[5]
Cancer and death[edit]
On November 6, 2012, Price confirmed that he was fighting pancreatic cancer. Price told the San Antonio Express-News that he had been receiving chemotherapy for the past six months.[9] An alternative to the chemo would have been surgery that involved removing the pancreas along with portions of the stomach and liver, which would have meant a long recovery and stay in a nursing home. Said Price, "That's not very much an option for me. God knows I want to live as long as I can but I don't want to live like that."[9] He told the newspaper, "The doctor said that every man will get cancer if he lives to be old enough. I don't know why I got it – I ain't old!"[9]
Although in February 2013 the cancer appeared to be in remission, Price was hospitalized in May 2013 with severe dehydration.[10][11] On December 2, 2013, Price entered a Tyler, Texas, hospital in the final stages of pancreatic cancer, according to his son, then left on December 12 for home hospice care.[12] Price died at his home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, on December 16, 2013, at age 87.[13][14] Price was interred at Restland Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas.
Personal life[edit]
After leaving Nashville, Price lived his time off the road on his east Texas ranch near Mount Pleasant, continuing to dabble in gamefowl, cattle and horses.[4] Ray Price married twice. He and his first wife divorced in the late 1960s. Price married second wife Janie on June 11, 1970, and they remained together until his death.[4] A son from his first marriage, Cliff Price, also survives.[1]