Biography
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Born
17 June 1910
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Born In
Blue Lick, Lincoln County, Kentucky, United States
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Died
19 September 1968 (aged 58)
Clyde Julian "Red" Foley (June 17, 1910 – September 19, 1968) was a country music singer.
Foley was born in Blue Lick, Kentucky. He began playing the guitar and the harmonica as a young boy and at age seventeen he won first prize in a statewide talent show. Ultimately he signed with Decca Records in 1941. His hit songs include Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy, Old Shep, Sugarfoot Rag, and Tennessee Saturday Night. Peace in the Valley, backed up by The Sunshine Boys, in 1951 became the first gospel record to sell a million copies, and One By One, a duet with Kitty Wells, became a chart topper in 1954.
For more than two decades, Foley was a major star of country music, selling in excess of twenty-five million records. During 1962-63, Foley was a regular cast member along with Fess Parker in the television series, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Red Foley was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967. For his contribution to the music industry, Red Foley also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6225 Hollywood Blvd.
He died unexpectedly in 1968 in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the age of fifty-eight from a heart attack. He is interred in the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.
His daughter from his second marriage to Judy Martin (nee: Eva Alaine Overstake) is Shirley Lee Foley who is married to singer Pat Boone. His granddaughter is singer Debby Boone.
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