Category: Obituary
The Country Music Hall of Fame has lost a second Hall of Fame members this month. More significantly, with the passing of Jo Walker-Meador, the Hall of Fame lost the woman who could rightfully be called its mother.
Walker-Meador died Wednesday (8/16) of a stroke in Nashville. Her death comes nine days after the passing of Glen Campbell from Alzheimer's disease.
Her birth name was Edith Josephine Denning, when she came into the world in 1924. In 1958 Harry Stone hired Walker-Meador as an office manager for a new organization called the Country Music Association. By 1962 she was the executive director of the CMA.
In her tenure she oversaw the development of things that we take for granted today: the CMA awards, CMA Fan Fest, and most significantly, the Country Music Hall of Fame. The 1950s may have been the "golden era" of the music, but Jo Walker-Meador helped make the country music industry a formidable and respectable business in the 60s and beyond.
Walker-Meador stepped down in 1991. In 1995, the Hall of Fame that she helped make a reality inducted her as a significant industry individual for her vital contributions to country music.
Farewell to Jo Walker-Meador, who was 93.
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