Country Musicians We Lost in 2020

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Many lives were lost this year unfortunately. I was reading a list of just the country artists that died in 2020. Wanted to share some of the names as sort of a tribute. Country and pop icon Kenny Rogers died at his home in Georgia on March 20. He had been in hospice care. A statement attributed his death to natural causes. Rogers was 81. Joe Diffie's unexpected death stunned the country music industry. The singer died on March 29, just two days after revealing that he had been diagnosed with COVID. His death marked country music's first loss to the pandemic, but it would not be the last. John Prine was one of country and folk music's most respected singer-songwriters. He died on April 7 after battling COVID for just over a week. Prine was 73. Little Richard, the pioneer whose career spanned rock, R&B and gospel music, died in Nashville on May 9 at the age of 87. Charlie Daniels died on July 6 after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83 years old with a history of heart problems, but prior to his death he had not shared any health problems and had planned on continuing to tour and record in 2020 and beyond. Mac Davis, the writer of Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto", died at the age of 78 on Sept. 29, just one day after news broke that he was critically ill after undergoing heart surgery in Nashville. Johnny Bush, the Texas-based singer songwriter known for writing the Willie Nelson classic "Whiskey River," died on Oct. 16, at the age of 85. He died of pneumonia. Jerry Jeff Walker, the iconic singer songwriter best known for writing "Mr. Bojangles," died on Oct. 23 at the age of 78. Outlaw country songwriter Billy Joe Shaver died at the age of 81, of a stroke, on Oct. 28 in Waco, Texas. Hal Ketchum died after a battle with dementia on Nov. 23. The "Small Town Saturday Night" singer was 67 years old. Charley Pride, a Country Music Hall of Fame member, the first Black singer to join the Grand Ole Opry, and the 2020 CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award winner, died on Dec. 12, of COVID complications. He was 86 years old. K.T. Oslin died at age 78 on Dec. 21 after a multi-year battle with Parkinson's disease and a short battle with COVID-19. Feel free to add any names that I left out. May they all rest in peace.