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Posted by Maureen Heaslip
on January 24, 2008, 3:00 am, in reply to "Slim Whitman is ALIVE and Well"
81.79.170.160
Thank you Julie, for clearing this up. Maureen.
--Previous Message--
: A few days ago Arie den Dulk, who is the
: self-appointed "secretary" of a
: small Holland-based (unauthorized) Jim
: Reeves fan club, rushed to post the news on
: his website that Slim Whitman had died. Some
: of you have commented on this in the posts
: below but I did not confirm this news
: because my sources were telling me Slim was
: alive and well. Apparently the rumor got
: started in an email that was widely
: circulated and Mr. Den Dulk never bothered
: to check it out. He wasn't the only one.
: News reports even claimed that Slim had
: passed away.
:
: I try to avoid ever printing rumors on my
: site.
:
: This all reminds me of Mark Twain's humorous
: quote that "Reports of my death have
: been greatly exaggerated."
:
: Here is the story from the Nashville
: Tennessean:
:
: SLIM WHITMAN TALKS ABOUT
: REPORTS OF HIS DEATH
:
: Slim Whitman would like to clear something
: up: He’s alive and doing pretty well despite
: reports of his death on Monday.
:
: The country singer, who experienced his
: first surge in popularity in the ’50s, has
: no idea how it got started. But e-mails
: began circulating and next thing you know, a
: disc jockey was announcing it on the air, a
: tearful friend performing on stage was
: announcing it to his audience and online
: sources reported it in news updates,
: including Tennessean.com on Monday.
:
: “All of a sudden on Sunday, Jan. 20, I
: died,” said Whitman, who turned 84 on
: Sunday. “I knew it was a lie. I kept looking
: at it. I thought, this could sort of get out
: of hand here. I thought, oh well, if it gets
: out of hand, I’ll go on a TV show and show
: them that I’m not dead.”
:
: Whitman, a Grand Ole Opry guest in the
: mid-1950s, has traveled the world spreading
: his brand of country music, enjoying chart
: success in England in particular. Known for
: his high falsetto on songs such as “Indian
: Love Call” and “Secret Love,” Whitman toured
: last in 2002. But that’s not because of his
: physical condition.
:
: “The wife is on dialysis, so she can’t go. I
: would not go back to England and leave her,
: so I just tell them I can’t go. I take care
: of her,” he said. Whitman met his wife Jerry
: when she was 13, and they’ve been married 66
: years. She bought him his first guitar and
: was his announcer as he started in radio. “I
: would probably not have gone on radio if it
: hadn’t been for the wife…. She is probably
: the reason I was in show business.”
:
: Whitman lives on his Woodpecker Paradise
: estate outside Jacksonville, Fla. He says
: he’s in great shape. The only medication he
: takes is an aspirin every other day because
: his doctor told him to. He doesn’t even wear
: glasses.
:
: “As a matter of fact I don’t feel anything
: like 84 years old. …I don’t know why I
: don’t, but I don’t feel like an old man,” he
: said. The fact that people recognize him in
: the grocery store still leads him to believe
: he doesn’t look like an old man either.
:
: This morning, Whitman spent time on the air
: for a Jacksonville radio station and he has
: gotten many inquiries since the news of his
: death circulated.
:
: “It seems like every 10 years something
: weird happens like that,” said Whitman. Last
: decade, it was that the 1996 Tim Burton film
: Mars Attacks! used his voice as a
: martian-killing weapon, saving the world
: from invaders.
:
: It keeps things interesting.
:
: “I’m here," he said. "I’m happy to
: be alive.”
:
:
:
:
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