NASHVILLE — Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley died Thursday night after a battle with skin cancer, according to a Facebook post by his grandson. Stanley was 89 years old and a member of the Grand Ole Opry and Bluegrass Hall of Fame.
His publicist, Kirt Webster, confirmed Stanley’s death but did not have details.
Singing was as natural as breathing for Ralph Edmund Stanley, who was born Feb. 25, 1927 on Big Spraddle Creek in Dickenson County, Va.. His first public performance was in church, and when he was 11 years old, his mother said that he could either have a pig or a banjo. Luckily for music fans everywhere, he chose the latter.
In 1946, Stanley, just out of the Army, and his older brother Carter began performing. The Stanleys Brothers had a daily 15-minute time slot on radio station WNVA; the show was sponsored by Clinch Valley Insurance Company, which inspired the name of the Stanleys' band: The Clinch Mountain Boys.
After Carter died in December 1966, his grief-stricken brother made the decision to continue performing with the Clinch Mountain Boys as a solo artist.
"I pulled myself up, and I made up my mind that music was all I could do, all I ever was meant to do, and I was going to do it," he said the 2009 autobiography he wrote with Eddie Dean, Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times.
Stanley's career was rejuvenated in 2000 when his music was featured on the soundtrack of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? His recording of "O Death" won a Best Male Country Vocal Performance, and introduced him to a new generation of fans. He released his final album, Ralph Stanley and Friends: Man of Constant Sorrow, in 2015.
After receiving an honorary Doctorate of Music from Lincoln Memorial University in 1976 (and another one from Yale in 2014), he was known to bluegrass fans worldwide as "Doctor Ralph."
In his autobiography, Stanley wrote that when he celebrated his 50th anniversary in the music business, Bob Dylan sent him a telegram. Its final line: "You will live forever."
