"The Most Talented Person I've Ever Fired"

Category: News/Obituary 

Country Music Hall of Fame legend Roy Clark died today (11/15) of pneumonia at his home in Tulsa.

Born in Virginia and raised in various areas because of his father's work in Navy shipyards, Roy Clark developed a love of music at an early age.  He took up the guitar when he was just 14, and the next year he was winning national championships in banjo and guitar competitions.

In 1955, before major success for either man, Clark was a regular on a regional country music program hosted by Jimmy Dean.  Although popular, Dean canned Clark because Roy kept showing up late for rehearsals.  When Dean fired Clark he told him, "Roy, you're the most talented person I've ever fired."

In the early 60s Clark's star took off.  He had his first top ten hit with a cover of Bill Anderson's classic "The Tips of My Fingers" in 1963.  He also found an acting job as "Cousin Roy Hasley" on The Beverly Hillbillies (he would also play Myrtle Hasley, Cousin Roy's mom).  

Then along came 1969 and a CBS "summer replacement" country music/variety show called Hee Haw.  Clark, who had just released his third single on Dot Records, was tapped to co-host the program with honky tonk great Buck Owens.  Both the program and Clark's single -- "Yesterday, When I Was Young" -- became major hits.  (Ironically, the co-writer and original performer of "Yesterday, When I Was Young," Charles Aznavour, died October 1.)

Clark began building bigger mantles for his awards:  two-time CMA "Entertainer of the Year" (with a third "Entertainer of the Year" award from the ACM), gold records, number one hits (his biggest chart success was 1973's "Come Live With Me"), and a Grammy for his rendition of "Alabama Jubilee."

Clark was one of those rare performers who was well-known to people outside of the country music world thanks to his years on Hee Haw.  Additionally, music fans of all genres knew him for his marvelous guitar work (his first album was titled The Lightning Fingers of Roy Clark) and prowess on other instruments, including banjo (which he frequently played on Hee Haw, including on the "Pickin' and Grinnin'" joke session with Buck Owens) and fiddle.

As with most performers in their 80s, Clark was out of the limelight, but the awards kept coming.  His adopted hometown of Tulsa named an elementary school after him, and in 2009 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Survivors include Clark's wife of 61 years, Barbara, three children, and a legion of fans.

In 1995, fulfilling a request of baseball legend and fellow Oklahoman Mickey Mantle, Clark sang his major crossover hit at Mantle's funeral.  How it's time for us to sing those words in memory of a true legendary performer in every sense of the word:

There are so many songs in me that won't be sung
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue

Roy Clark was 85.