Charley Pride – a Country Music Hall of Fame singer who rose from rural Mississippi to become the genre s first Black superstar – died Saturday at age 86.
The Kiss An Angel Good Mornin star died in Dallas because of complications from COVID-19, according to a news release from his publicist, Jeremy Westby.
With a career spanning more than five decades, Pride cemented a trailblazing legacy unlike any entertainer before him. Launching his career in the 1960s, in the height of civil rights movement, Pride became the first Black man to outright conquer country music fame.
He overcame audiences unwilling to hear a Black man cover Hank Williams and promoters equally skeptical at hosting his performances to once be the best-selling artist for RCA Records since Elvis Presley.
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