It’s never easy to say goodbye
by Paul
Cashmere
on January 3, 2021
in
News
Country Star Misty Morgan
Dies Aged 75
January 01 2021
Country singer Misty Morgan, best known for the 1970
hit ‘Tennessee Bird Walk’ with her husband Jack Blanchard, has died after a
battle with cancer at the age of 75.
‘Tennessee Bird Walk’ was a number 1 hit according to Billboard in America and
reached number three in Australia. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award
for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group at the 13th Grammy Awards.
Misty
Country Songstress Misty Morgan Passes Away At The Age Of 75
The new year begins as the old one ended: with sad news. Misty Morgan has died.
Morgan,
half of the duet of Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan, died New Year's
Day, less than a week after being diagnosed with cancer. According to
Blanchard (her husband of 53 years), Morgan was taken to the emergency
room on Christmas day. Surgery, per his Facebook posts, revealed that
she had cancer and "not more than five months or so, if we're lucky."
By New Year's Eve, Blanchard's posts went from searching for hospice
care to "she can't come home."
This evening, around 6 PM, Blanchard posted, "I was sitting in the hospital room watching Misty sleep, and she died."
Although
both were from Buffalo, New York (even born in the same hospital), Jack
Blanchard and Misty Morgan didn't meet until 1963, in Florida. They
wed in 1967 and spent their career and lives together.
In
1970 America was blindsided by the novelty-style hit "Tennessee Bird
Walk," the song about taking things away from birds that make them
birds. It went to #1 on the country charts and was a top 25 hit on the
pop charts (amid things as diverse as Elvis, the Jackson Five, and Led
Zeppelin). Blanchard and Morgan would have a total of five top 40
country hits in their brief heyday, including another novelty song,
"Humphrey the Camel," and the far more serious "Somewhere in Virginia in
the Rain," before fading from commercial popularity.
Misty Morgan was 75.
K.F.
Raizor, author of the website Raizor's Edge and the book We Can't Sing
and We Ain't Funny: The World of Homer and Jethro is our guest writer
today on That Nashville Sound. She's ever so gracious to provide
wonderful tributes to honor those to whom the music we treasure just
wouldn't be the same without. Thank you, K.F.
Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan also had another 1970
Top 40 Australian hit with ‘Humphrey The Camel’.
Jack and Misty would have a string of Country hits in
America throughout the 1970s including ‘You’ve Got Your Troubles’, ‘There Must
Be Something More To Life (Than Growing Old’ and ‘Somewhere in Virginia in the
Rain’.
In a statement on Facebook Jack Blanchard told fans,
“I was sitting in the hospital room watching Misty
sleep and she died. They tell me I’m in shock so I’d better stop writing”.
Love, Jack
