Yet ANOTHER Hall of Fame Death

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This year has been unbelievably brutal on various music halls of fame. As I mentioned earlier, there have been seven Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees who've died this year (starting with David Bowie in January, then Glenn Frey of the Eagles, Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane, Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire, Prince, Bernie Worrell of Parliament/Funkadelic, and Elvis' guitarist Scotty Moore), two Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame members (Kim Williams and Guy Clark), and two Country Music Hall of Fame members (Sonny James and Merle Haggard, who's also in the Songwriters' Hall of Fame). Today we lost our third Country Music Hall of Famer in 2016 with the death of Bonnie Brown. In 1956 Bonnie Brown joined her older siblings Jim Ed and Maxine as the close-harmony trio the Browns. Their hits were numerous and far-reaching: "The Three Bells" was a smash on the country and pop charts and nominated for a Grammy. "The Old Lamplighter" was also a crossover hit. On top of that, they had several country hits. In the mid-60s Bonnie and her older sister, Maxine, decided that they were going to drop out of the music business to concentrate on their families. Jim Ed went on to a hugely successful solo career as a singer and TV host (he hosted a show on the old Nashville Network called Nashville on the Road). Jim Ed reunited with his sisters on numerous occasions, appearing on the Grand Ole Opry, the RFD-TV program Country's Family Reunion, and other "retro country" tours and programs. Jim Ed Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. He underwent treatment and was considered to be "cancer free." In March 2015 the Country Music Hall of Fame announced that the Browns were boing to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. However, by that time Jim Ed's cancer had returned. When it was discovered that his cancer was too far advanced for him to survive until the October formal induction ceremonies he received his medallion in his hospital bed. Jim Ed died on June 11, 2015. At the Hall of Fame ceremonies last October, Bonnie announced that she, too, had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Historian, DJ, and friend Eddie Stubbs said that was surprising, given that Bonnie had never smoked a day in her life. (Of course, many musicians in those days did smoke in rooms, clubs, and bars; plus, as Warren Zevon's son Jordan argues, the asbestos in recording studios was also posing an unseen threat to the people who worked in those studios.) Bonnie Brown was 77; her 78th birthday would have been in 15 days. Here's the Browns' best-known song (in the video Bonnie is to Jim Ed's left):