Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Eddy Arnold was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a socalled Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records. A member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame , Arnold ranked 22nd on Country Music Televisions 2003 list of TheGreatest Men of Country Music.
Arnold was born on May 15, 1918 on a farm near Henderson, Tennessee. His father, a sharecropper, played the fiddle, while his mother played guitar. Arnolds father died when he was just 11, forcing him to leave school and begin helping on the family farm. This led to him later gaining his nicknamethe Tennessee Plowboy. One of his brothers, PFC John Hendrix Arnold, fought in WWII and died in the Normandy landings. Arnold attended Pinson High School in Pinson, Tennessee, where he played guitar for school functions and events. He quit before graduation to help with the farm work, but continued performing, often arriving on a mule with his guitar hung on his back. Arnold also worked parttime as an assistant at a mortuary.
Source: Wikipedia