Farewell, Porter Wagoner

                                              

TWIT is sad to report that country music legend Porter Wagoner has died.  He lost his battle with lung cancer on Sunday.  He was 80 years old.  The entertainer was known for his flashy rhinestone and sequin suits and his pompadour, and was a regular performer at the Grand Ole Opry.  Porter signed with RCA records in 1955, and joined the Opry two years later.  By 1960, he had his own syndicated TV show, "The Porter Wagoner Show."  The show ran for an impressive 21 years.  It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville, and set the pattern for many other shows. 

To many country music fans, Porter Wagoner was best known as the man who launched the career of Dolly Parton.  He hired the 21 year old singer as his duet partner in 1967.  Dolly joined "The Porter Wagoner Show" where she sang her own songs and duets with Porter.  Porter and Dolly went on to win the Country Music Association's duo of the yer in 1970 and 1971.  One of their duets, "Just Someone I Used To Know" is one of my all time favorite country songs.  Dolly left his show in 1974, and went on to mega-stardom, and Porter sued her for $3 million in assets.  They settled out of court in 1980, and the pair said that they had always remained friendly.  Dolly was at Porter's bedside the afternoon before he died, and sang for him and prayed with him. 

Porter's TV show was also one of my favorites.  The whole family watched it.  It featured Porter's band, The Wagonmasters.  As a kid, I was impressed with his band because they all wore identical flashy suits and cowboy boots like Porter. The show also featured country comedian Speck Rhodes, who was always on the phone talking to his girlfriend Sadie.  During Porter's show and other country music shows, they would show one of my all time favorite commercials, starring none other than Porter and Dolly.  The commercials were for Duz laundry detergent and emphasized the freebies that came in the box of detergent.  At first there were drinking glasses, but then Duz pulled out all of the stops and had dish towels with flowers on them.  Here's the script for the best Duz commercial starring Porter and Dolly:

Dolly: Are they here yet, Porter?
Porter:  Are what here, Dolly?
Dolly: The brand new towels in each box of Duz detergent!
Porter: Well, just wait . . .
Dolly: But I can't wait!!

I had the priviledge of attending the Grand Ole Opry two times, and each time I got to see Porter Wagoner host the show and perform.  He loved his fans, and treated them very kindly.  When he was on stage at the Opry, he would walk to the front of the stage and open his suit jacket to show that it was just as flashy on the inside as it was on the outside, or he would pull up the leg of his pants to show his decorated cowboy boots, and you would see an explosion of camera flashes as dozens of people would gather around the stage to take pictures of him.   You can't compare him to a George Strait or Tim McGraw, but he was unique, and was quite the entertainer and showman, and set the standard for country entertainers today.  You'll be missed, Porter Wagoner, and the Opry will never be the same.