Entertainer Ferlin Husky dies

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ferlin Husky, a pioneering country music entertainer in the 1950s and early ’60s known for hits like “Wings of a Dove” and “Gone,” died Thursday. He was 85.

The 2010 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee died at his home, hall spokeswoman Tina Wright said. He had a history of heart problems and related ailments.

Husky was one of the most versatile entertainers to emerge from country music. He was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor, and even a comedian whose impersonations ranged from Bing Crosby to Johnny Cash.

He was one of the first country musicians to bring the genre to television and helped spread its popularity in booming post-World War II California.

He said in a 2010 interview with the Associated Press that he was buoyed by his Hall of Fame induction because he worried he’d been forgotten as his health failed over the years.

Friends seemed more indignant about Husky’s long wait than he did. Tracy Pitcox, president of Heart of Texas Records, remembers telling Husky he deserved to be in the hall of fame a few years before his induction.

“He said, ‘It would be nice, but it isn’t going to impress Jesus,’ ” Pitcox remembered Thursday. “I just thought, ‘Wow, what a nice thing to say.’ ”

Husky was one of the first country artists to have his name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, according to his website. In 1957, he had a No. 1 hit on the country chart with “Gone,” a re-recording of a song he had done several years earlier.

“Wings of a Dove,” a gospel song, became another No. 1 country hit in 1960 and was one of his signature songs. His other hits included “A Fallen Star,” “My Reason for Living,” “The Waltz You Saved for Me” and “Timber I’m Falling.”