Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter Cindy Walker died Thursday at Parkview Regional Hospital in Mexia, Texas. She was 87.
Her niece, Carol Adams, said Walker had been ill for several months. But she said Walker continued writing songs in her old age, and music remained the love of her life.
Walker’s songs were recorded by stars ranging from Bing Crosby to Elvis Presley. Some of her best-known songs include “You Don’t Know Me,” “Dream Baby” and the top 5 Gene Autry hit “Silver Spurs.”
Earlier this month, Willie Nelson released an album of her work, “You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker” (Lost Highway).
“I loved her music,” Nelson said late last year of Walker’s catalog of playful saloon songs and heartfelt ballads. “Even before we met I felt like I knew her from listening to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys do her songs. Every night of the week as a teenager I was playing things like ‘Miss Molly’ and ‘I Was Just Walking out the Door’ somewhere.”
Walker was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville in 1997. She was also an inaugural inductee into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 1998.
Funeral services are scheduled for this morning (March 27) at First Presbyterian Church in Mexia.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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