Eddy Arnold

Perhaps more than any other artist, Eddy Arnold personified country music’s adaptation to the modern, urban world, and its transition from folk-based sounds, styles, and images to pop-influenced ones. He was also one of country music’s most prolific hit-making artists, regularly placing songs high in the charts from the 1940s through the 1960s, and scoring Top Ten hits as late as 1980. Richard Edward Arnold came from a large farming family in Chester County, Tennessee. Beginning at age seventeen, he worked on radio and in beer joints in Jackson,Tennessee, while also serving as an undertaker’s driver. Next he moved to radio work in Memphis and St. Louis, singing and performing rube comedy as well. One of the first country artists to work the Las Vegas scene, Arnold was also a pioneering country television performer. In 1966, at age forty-eight, Arnold was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. He remains the youngest inductee ever to receive the honor. Arnold and his wife, Sally Gayhart Arnold, donated their vast collection of materials documenting his career to the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum in 2003. Arnold died May 8, 2008, preceded in death by his wife, who died March 11, 2008.