Trailblazing Music Icon, Army Veteran Charley Pride has died
About Charley, from his Bio website
As an all-star player in 1956, Charley played against a group of major-league players (the Willie Mays All‑Stars) that included Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. At the end of the season, these teams barnstormed together all over the south playing exhibition games that the major-league all-stars almost always won. However, one October night in Victoria, TX, Charley sealed a rare victory for the negro-league all-stars by closing out a game with 4 innings of shutout ball.
In late 1956 Charley was drafted by Uncle Sam and ordered to report to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas for basic training. During Christmas leave from basic training, he married his wife Rozene, whom he had met earlier in the year while playing baseball in Memphis. After basic training, he was stationed at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was assigned to quartermaster duty and the baseball team. While serving at Ft. Carson, Charley was known to sing in the barracks and occasionally perform at the officer’s club (which was very unusual for a black man at the time).
The fort’s baseball squad was stacked with baseball talent in 1957 and won the “All Army” sports championship at a tournament at Ft. Knox. In addition to Pride, the team included several other players who had been playing or would go on to play professionally, including George Altman (Cubs, Cardinals, Mets), Willie Kirkland (Giants, Indians, Orioles, Senators), Eddie Kopacz and J.C. Hartman.
Upon receiving his discharge from the US Army in early 1958, Charley rejoined the Memphis Red Sox and returned to doggedly pursuing his dream of becoming a major league baseball pitcher. As an all-star player again that year, Charley pitched against major league all-stars including Al Smith, Gene Baker and Ernie Banks.
Growing up, Charley was exposed primarily to Blues, Gospel and Country music. His father inadvertently fostered Charley’s love of Country music by tuning the family’s Philco radio to Nashville’s WSM-AM in order to catch Grand Ole Opry broadcasts.
Throughout his career, Charlye went back to his roots of country and gospel. n 1971, Charley won two GRAMMY® Awards related to his Gospel album DID YOU THINK TO PRAY–“Best Sacred Performance, Musical (Non-Classical)” for the album, as well as “Best Gospel Performance Other Than Soul” for the single “Let Me Live.”
For his full biography visit his page HERE