Posted by Anita Lee Cooper on December 15, 2013, 3:22 pm
I am sad to hear that Ray Price has passed away today at 87 from pancreatic cancer.God bless Mr.Price and may he rest in peace.I first heard the sad news on WKNC 88.1FM NCSU radio,in Raleigh,NC on their classic country and Western swing Sunday afternoon show that plays most Sundays from 4 to 6 pm EST.I have a dvd of his and JR's appearances on "The Country show"in color from the mid-1950's and its thousands of times better than most country music from my lifetime the past 49+ years.My sympathy and condolences go out to his family and friends at this sad time.With Love and respect.Anita L. Cooper
Anita, how ironic this moment is for me. I was just connecting up my system from our recent move to our new home and had tried the CD changer out with Ray's classic album of "Danny Boy." His voice was so unique and everlasting. I've seen him in full concert twice. What a memorable class act and I will never forget those shows. Another great loss never to be replaced.
My memories of Ray Price concern the time when, as a teenager, I had fllown down to Nashville during the deejay convention to see my friend Mary Reeves (whom of course I had seen several times before). Each year, even when Jim was alive, Jim Reeves Enterprises hosted a hospitality suite (as did other artists) in one of the hotels.
While walking into the hotel, I was approached by a young man whom I confess I did not recognize, who asked me if I knew where the Reeves suite was, and I said I was headed there anyway and so we walked there together. It turns out it was actor Bobby Sherman (remember him, from the TV series "Here Come the Brides"? He an American singer, actor and occasional songwriter, who became a popular teen idol in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was in Nashville to also record and invited me to his session the following Monday but I wanted to spend the day with Mary instead, which I did). Anyway, I digress.
Mary really went all out that year and sponsored a dance in the hotel ballroom, featuring the Blue Boys BACKING RAY PRICE, whom she had hired to do a set. Can you imagine what that sounded like? A great singer and Jim Reeves' own band accompanying him!
Later in the evening I ran intro Ray at another hotel and he graciously posed for a picture, which I still have.
One postscript to this story is that I found Ray to be strangely aloof about Jim when I tried to get him to expound on his memories of Reeves for my book. (If you've read "Jim Reeves: His Untold Story," you know that it was Ray's then-wife, Linda, who organized the first search efforts when Jim's plane went down on Friday, July 31, 1964, in response to a plea from Jim's pilot friend, Bill Larson, who phoned her. Within a couple of hours Linda had called nearly everybody in the Nashville music fraternity and single handedly recruited them to help look for the plane. She was the unsung heroine behind the search and never got any public recognition until my book was published).
Anyway, Ray's response to me was that he barely knew Jim!!!!
But Jim even borrowed Ray's twin engine Aztec plane (which Bill Larson flew) for extended tour dates. And Judy Ford, Reeves' young rodeo star girlfriend, always confessed that Ray Price was her favorite SINGER but Jim was her favorite PERSON. Mr. Reeves used to tease her about this and say "when am *I* going to be your favorite singer?" On one occasion when Jim and the band flew down to Texas, and he arranged to have Judy meet him at the airport, he commented that he didn't bring Ray Price, but at least he brought his airplane!
After Jim was killed and the wreckage was found, Ray and Linda Price took Bill Larson home with them, fed him a meal, and insisted he get some sleep at their place because they were so concerned about him. He had been the first one airborne after Jim's plane disappeared from the radar screen just before 5 p.m. on the 31st, and had been flying Ray's plane with Linda and also an FAA man, William Whitmore, as a passenger, for a couple of days, trying to spot the wreckage from the air. Ray had been out of town for part of that time.)
I was so sorry to hear about the passing of Ray Price. He was another one of the greats in Country music. I was reading the article Larry posted on him and it was very good. I was kind of surprised, however, that on mentioning many of Ray's hits during his lifetime, they didn't mention "For The Good Times", which was probably his biggest. Ray will be missed a lot. We've lost another of the greats from the golden era of Country music. I would like to add that I was also saddened to learn that we also lost the great actor Peter O' Toole, who was a great actor, and one of my favorites.
A little bit more to add to your message, I have a real keepsake - an autographed copy of that Grammy-winning album from 1970 that Ray graciously signed for me at one of his concerts. He wrote "Still having good times, Ray Price." It,s hung on my wall and I see it every day. What great memories of a true gentleman and legend.
Correction on Larry's comments, although I had flown Ray's airplane on tours and during the JR search, Glenn Kemp was Jim's pilot when he rented the airplane from Ray. Glenn was a close friend of Jim's and often flew with him. By that time, '64 I was flying for EAL, although they allowed me emergency leave for the search effort.