Obit: Cindy Walker @ 87...wrote "You Don't Know Me," "In the Misty Moonlight" and "Cherokee Maiden', among many others

[ThatManDan]

Obit: Cindy Walker @ 87...wrote "You Don't Know Me," "In the Misty Moonlight" and "Cherokee Maiden', among many others

(From the L.A. Times)

Cindy Walker, the prolific Texas songwriter who in every decade from the 1940s to the '80s turned out country and pop hits, has died. She was 87.

Walker, called the dean of Texas songwriters, died of natural causes Thursday at a hospital in Mexia, Texas, where she had lived most of her life.

Known for her romantic, sentimental, Western-flavored works, she wrote more than 500 recorded songs for an array of artists.

Among them were Gene Autry ("Blue Canadian Rockies"), Roy Orbison ("Dream Baby [How Long Must I Dream]"), Bob Wills ("Cherokee Maiden," "Bubbles in My Beer"), Eddy Arnold, Ray Charles ("You Don't Know Me"), the Ames Brothers ("China Doll"), Hank Snow ("The Gold Rush Is Over") and Jim Reeves ("Distant Drums," "This Is It").

She also wrote "Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow" for Spike Jones and the City Slickers.

By the late 1980s, "You Don't Know Me," one of her best-known songs, had been recorded by more than 75 singers, including (Eddy)Arnold, Elvis Presley, Jerry Vale and Mickey Gilley.

(Read more at

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-walker29mar29,1,5540883.story?coll=la-news-obituaries

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<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by ThatManDan on 03/29/06 08:55 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[John1]

Re: Obit: Cindy Walker @ 87...wrote "You Don't Know Me," "In the Misty Moonlight" and "Cherokee Maiden', among many others

Cindy Walker's 1997 acceptance speech into the Country Music hall of Fame was one of the most memorable ever. She read a poem she wrote about the out of style dress she was wearing - she had bought it for a BMI dinner many years before and her mother told her "that's the dress you should wear when you're inducted into the Hall of Fame", an idea she laughed off at the time...but that night many years after her mother was gone she proudly wore it to make her speech - and got a huge ovation.

As a young fan of Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, etc. in the 1960's I noted even then how often her name was in writing credits. Timeless songs from a classy songwriter.