Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Ferlin Husky died Thursday. He was 85.
The news was announced on the singer’ website: “Ferlin passed away today in the Critical Care unit of a Nashville-area hospital where he had been under intensive care for several days.”
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Husky — known for “Wings of a Dove” and “Gone” — suffered from heart disease. Husky also sang “A Fallen Star,” “My Reason for Living,” “The Waltz You Saved for Me” and “Timber I’m Falling.”
Elvis Presley once opened for him.
“There were a lot of years when nobody in the business could follow Ferlin Husky,” Merle Haggard told The Tennessean in 2010. “He was the big live act of the day. A great entertainer.”
Husky was born in Missouri, where he learned to play the guitar before he was 10 years old. He later moved to Bakersfield, Calif.
He sold more than 20 million records, and was credited by The Tennessean for paving the way for cross-genre artists like Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum.
His final recording was 2007’s “The Way It Was (Is The Way It Is).”
He is survived by two sons, six daughters and several grandchildren.
His funeral will take place in Hendersonville, Tennessee, according to his Web site.
