Mel Tillis, Country Star Known for His Songs and His Stutter, Dies at 85
Source: New York Times
By BILL FRISKICS-WARREN NOV. 19, 2017
Mel Tillis, whose career as a country singer and the writer of enduring hit songs like “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” earned him a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame and a National Medal of Arts — but who was equally well known for the stutter he employed to humorous and self-deprecating effect onstage — died on Sunday in Ocala, Fla. He was 85.
Mr. Tillis “battled intestinal issues since early 2016 and never fully recovered,” his publicist, Don Murry Grubbs, said in a statement. The suspected cause of death was respiratory failure, he said.
Mr. Tillis found a way to turn his speech impediment into an asset by using his ready smile and innate comedic timing to get his audiences to laugh along with him. He stuttered his way to regular appearances on television talk shows and to clowning bit parts in Hollywood movies.
He even went so far as to make the nickname Stutterin’ Boy, conferred upon him by the singer Webb Pierce, the title of his autobiography (written with Walter Wager and published in 1984), and to have it painted on the side of his tour bus. He also named his personal airplane Stutter One and referred to his female backup singers as the Stutterettes.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/obituaries/mel-tillis-dead.html
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When I was young, in Houston, TX, Mel Tillis was on the radio, the TV (yes, Hee Haw), on the juke box in the bars, in the dancehalls and the honky tonks, and in the concert halls.
It don't get more "Country" than Mel Tillis. 
but the girls would kindly remind me, "You can't two-step to that, silly!" 
Thank you, Mel! 
Here's one of the best that was written by Mel.
Music is one thing that we all share. Music is there in every corner of the earth and amongst all people. It is so important. 
. . .carrying on the legacy. . .
