Ferlin Husky

Ferlin Eugene Husky (December 3, 1925 – March 17, 2011) was an American country music singer who was equally adept at honky-tonk, ballads, spoken recitations, rockabilly and pop tunes.

From 1948 to 1953, he recorded under the stage name Terry Preston. He also created and recorded as the comic, outspoken hayseed character, Simon Crum. In the 1950s and '60s, his hits included "Gone" and "Wings of a Dove", each reaching number one on the country charts. Between 1953 and 1975, he had 11 top 10 hits, two dozen top 20 hits and a total of 50 songs in Billboard magazine's top 100 country songs. His versatility and matinee-idol looks propelled a seven-decade entertainment career. In 2010, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Ferlin Husky was born in Gumbo, Missouri, an unincorporated community in northwestern St. Francois County, Missouri. His mother named him Furland, but his name was misspelled on his birth certificate. Husky grew up on a farm near Flat River and attended school in Irondale. An uncle taught him to play the guitar. After dropping out of high school, he moved to St. Louis, where he worked as a truck driver and steel mill worker while performing in honky tonks at night.

During World War II, Husky served in the United States Merchant Marine for five years, entertaining troops on transport ships. His website states that his ship participated in the D-Day invasion of Cherbourg. His Simon Crum character evolved from stories he told during those years about a Missouri neighbor named Simon Crump.

After the war, Husky continued to develop his Simon Crum character while working as a disc jockey in Missouri and then in Bakersfield, California, into the late 1940s. He began using the stage name Terry Preston at the suggestion of Smiley Burnette who claimed Ferlin Husky would never work on a marquee. He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 as a honky-tonk singer under the guidance of Cliffie Stone, who also managed Tennessee Ernie Ford. When at Capitol, he returned to using his given name although for his first few singles his last named was listed as "Huskey". A few singles failed before "A Dear John Letter" with Jean Shepard became a number one hit that year topping Billboard magazine's country charts and reaching number four on its pop charts. They followed it up that year with "Forgive Me John" which reached number four on Billboard's Most Played Country and Western Juke Boxes chart and number 24 on its Hot 100 chart turning the unknown singers into star performers in the United States. In 1955, Husky had a solo hit with "I Feel Better All Over (More Than Anywheres Else)" / "Little Tom". As Simon Crum, he signed a separate contract with Capitol Records and began releasing records, the biggest of which was 1959's "Country Music is Here to Stay" reaching number two for three weeks.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.