2021 In Memoriam

Country music performers, musicians, and songwriters we said goodbye to in 2021:

January 1 – Misty Morgan (age 75)
(of Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan)

January 7 – Jamie O’Hara (age 70)
(singer/songwriter)

January 8 – Ed Bruce (age 81)
(actor/singer/songwriter)

January 14 – Larry Willoughby (age 73)
(singer/songwriter)

January 18 – Jimmie F. Rodgers (age 87)
(singer)

January 21 – Randy Parton (age 67)
(singer/songwriter-younger brother of Dolly Parton)

February 3 – Jim Weatherly (age 77)
(songwriter)

February 9 – Richie Albright (age 81)
(drummer for Waylon Jennings)

February 10 – Lee Sexton (age 92)
(banjo player)

April 14 – Rusty Young (age 75)
(singer/songwriter/guitarist/co-founder of country-rock group Poco)

May 19 – Johnny Ashcroft (age 94)
(Australian country singer)

May 22 – Glenn Douglas Tubb (age 85
(singer/songwriter/nephew of Ernest Tubb)

May 23 – DeWayne Blackwell (age 84)
(songwriter)

May 29 – B.J. Thomas (age 78)
(pop and country singer)

July 4 – Sanford Clark (age 85)
(rockabilly and country singer)

July 10 – Byron Berline (age 77)
(fiddler)

August 4 – Razzy Bailey (age 82
(singer/songwriter)

August 13 – Nanci Griffith (age 68
(singer/songwriter)

August 20 – Tom T. Hall (age 85
(singer/songwriter)

August 21 – Don Everly (age 84)
(of the Everly Brothers)

August 26 – Kenny Malone (age 83)
(drummer)

September 12 – Don Maddox (age 98)
(of the Maddox Brothers & Rose)

September 22 – Bob Moore (age 88)
(session bass player and bandleader)

September 23 – Sue Thompson (age 96)
(pop and country singer)

September 26 – George Frayne IV (age 77)
(singer & keyboard player of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen)

October 14 – Phil Leadbetter (age 59)
(resonator guitarist)

October 24 – Sonny Osborne (age 83)
(singer/banjo player of the Osborne Brothers)

October 26th – Rose Lee Maphis (age 98)
(singer/Bakersfield sound pioneer with husband Joe Maphis)

December 2 – Neil Flanz (age 83)
(steel guitarist)

December 4 – Stonewall Jackson (age 89)
(singer/Grand Ole Opry member)

December 10 – Michael Nesmith (age 78)
(rock & country-rock singer/songwriter)

December 23 – Ray “Chubby” Howard (age 95
(steel guitarist)

December 23 – Red Jenkins (Bjorn Raita) (age 74
(singer/songwriter)

December 24 – J.D. Crowe (age 84)
(bluegrass artist/banjo player)

special thanks to Ken Hippler for compiling this list