Skeeter Davis RIP

[Gentle Giant]

This is very said. I was introduced to "End of the World" by Herman's Hermits when I was a kid. I didn't hear Skeeter's original until a few years ago when Nina Gordon recorded her version. Skeeter's has the emotional authenticity that comes from "owning" a song. RIP

Skeeter Davis, 72, Grand Ole Opry singer
By Associated Press *|* September 20, 2004

NASHVILLE -- Skeeter Davis, who hit the top of the pop charts with "The End of the World" in 1963 and sang on the Grand Ole Opry radio show for more than 40 years, died yesterday at a hospice of breast cancer. She was 72.

Ms. Davis, nicknamed Skeeter by her grandfather who said she was so active she buzzed around like a mosquito, had toured with Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.

She became a regular on the Opry, a live radio show, in 1959, and continued to perform as late as this year.

In 1973, Ms. Davis was suspended from the Opry for more than a year for protesting the arrest of "Jesus freaks" in Nashville.

"I felt like a child without a home," she said after her reinstatement.

Besides "The End of the World," her hits included "I'm Saving My Love" and "I Can't Stay Mad at You."

A native of Dry Ridge, Ky., Ms. Davis was born Mary Frances Penick. She took the name Skeeter Davis in the 1950s when she became half of the Davis Sisters duet.

Ms. Davis began a solo career after her duet partner, Betty Jack Davis, was killed in a 1953 car wreck.

Skeeter Davis was critically injured in the same accident.

Her autobiography, "Bus Fare to Kentucky," was published in 1993.*

[Root Doctor]

Her record with NRBQ, "She Sings, They Play," is terrific.

[Underhound]

Her record with NRBQ, "She Sings, They Play," is terrific.

She was also married to NRBQ's Joey Spampinato, though quite a bit older.

My mother would play her records when I was a kid. I would hear "The End of The World" and take it literally, believing the world was about to end. Mom had to cheer me up by assuring it was only a make believe song.

[cookie]

I have a very distinct memory of hearing "The End of the World" on AM radio in my Dad's old Dodge Dart. I'd heard it before and I've heard it since, but for some reason, I remember that time exactly (we were driving and we were on Rtes 202 and 9 at the corner of the Quaker Hill Road).

Why does somebody remember something like that.

Anyway...
RIP Skeeter Davis.