David Houston

Given birth to and raised in Bossier Town, Louisiana, country vocalist David Houston — whose lineage included Sam Houston and General Robert E. Lee — became a normal in the Louisiana Hayride as an adolescent. Evidently his soaring tenor tone of voice wasn’t totally valued; he found difficulty getting function in the music business, and finished up as an insurance underwriter. But record manufacturer Billy Sherrill brought Houston in to the fold when Epic Information was still a label (the first ’60s), and Houston brought the business its first proper strike with “Hill of Like.” In 1966 he broke to main position with “Nearly Persuaded,” which netted a set of Grammy Honours and brought pop identification as well. An associate from the Grand Ole Opry since 1971, he racked up 28 strike records over ten years, including duets with Tammy Wynette and Barbara Mandrell. David Houston produced his last appearance on the present on November 6, 1993; afterwards within the month he experienced a ruptured human brain aneurism and continued to be within a coma for five times until his loss of life on November 30.