Roy Acuff, `King Of Country,' Had A Way With The Music

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Roy Acuff, whose fancy fiddle playing and stirring songs like "The Wabash Cannonball" earned him the title "the king of country music," died today, a hospital announced. He was 89.

Mr. Acuff, who had been hospitalized several times in recent months, most recently Oct. 30, died at 2:35 a.m. of congestive heart failure, Baptist Hospital said in a statement.

Mr. Acuff joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938 and became the greatest star in the fabled history of the country music show. When not playing the fiddle, he did snappy yo-yo tricks for audiences.

In the 1940s, Mr. Acuff was so popular he was nominated for Tennessee governor and reputedly had his name chanted by Japanese troops in World War II.

He was best known for two hits recorded early in his career, "The Wabash Cannonball" and "The Great Speckled Bird." In the 1970s and 1980s, he also was well-known as a regular on the television variety show "Hee Haw."

But his enduring acclaim resulted from his longtime appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, where he performed nearly every Friday and Saturday night with his band, The Smoky Mountain Boys.

"I never dreamed of anything like this," he once said. "I was only trying to get well-known enough to do some road shows. All I really wanted to do was just make enough money to live on."

In a 1983 interview, he recalled that his style of singing in the 1930s was new to country music: "I rared back and sang it. I did it like I was going for the cows in Union County."

While country music gradually took on the trappings of pop and rock music, he stuck with his traditional style and shunned electric instruments. Instead, his band normally consisted of fiddles, dobros, acoustic guitars, pianos and harmonicas.

Mr. Acuff was hospitalized twice in 1984 for heart trouble. He did not perform on the Opry for five months. He had suffered a heart attack in 1976, but returned after recovering.

Even into the 1990s, he appeared just about every weekend on the show, though his eyesight and hearing were poor. To help his vision, he had glaucoma surgery in March 1991 - and missed just one weekend of performances.

"I just love this stage," he said in 1988. "You let that curtain fly back and I'm ready. . . . It's just like when the whistle blows at a football game."

Mr. Acuff was born Sept. 15, 1903, in Maynardville in the East Tennessee hills, son of a Baptist minister. He originally yearned for a baseball career and didn't sing professionally until he was almost 30.

Over the years, he sold more than 25 million records with hits like "Wreck on the Highway," "Fireball Mail," "Night Train to Memphis," "Low and Lonely" and "Pins and Needles."

During World War II, it was said that Japanese troops yelled "To hell with Roosevelt, to hell with Babe Ruth, to hell with Roy Acuff!" during one battle charge.

He received numerous awards during his life. In December 1991, Mr. Acuff was honored during a televised ceremony at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for his contribution to the performing arts.

In July 1991, President Bush presented him with a National Medal of Art. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987 from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences - the organization that presents the Grammy awards.

During breaks on the Grand Ole Opry, he entertained the audience by doing yo-yo tricks and placing his fiddle upright on the bridge of his nose and balancing it while fans rushed to the foot of the stage to take pictures.

When President Nixon visited the Opry in 1974, a widely published picture showed Nixon using Mr. Acuff's yo-yo.

President Reagan visited the Grand Ole Opry House in 1984 to wish Mr. Acuff a happy 81st birthday. In 1990, Mr. Acuff and other Opry stars went to Houston to entertain President Bush and other dignitaries at an economic summit.

Mr. Acuff, always amiable to fans, was himself keenly interested in politics and twice ran for governor as a Republican in the then-solidly-Democratic state.

He failed to win the primary in 1944 but did win the nomination four years later. His campaign included calls for more roads and better schools, but Democrats attacked him as a "hillbilly fiddler." Though Mr. Acuff lost by a 2-to-1 margin in 1948, he received 167,000 votes - more than any GOP nominee had ever earned in a statewide race.

In 1962, he became the first living person inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He told a reporter that he wanted to be remembered as a "man who took pride in country music and did what he could to raise it and help its standards. I hope I've meant something for country music to be respected. I'd like to be remembered as a man who went to heaven and not another place. I hope to join my wife some day."

His wife, Mildred, whom he married in 1936, died in 1981.