King of Country Music

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The title 'King of Country Music" is verifiable throughout the media sources of the 1950's and 1960's and beyond.

Roy Acuff, who started his singing career with a minstrel show in 1934 after 2 years of recuperation from a sunstroke he suffered while trying out for one of the major league baseball farm teams, got his start on the Grand Ole Opry on February 19, 1938, being the first singer on the Grand Ole Opry that was subordinate to the band. He was the start of an onslaught of country music singers coming on the show that were not full blown string bands, and were starting to turn out hit records.

Between 1936 and 1943, the Grand Ole Opry hired on Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, Pee Wee King, Minnie Pearl (the first Opry comedienne), and several others.

The name "King of Country Music" was bestowed on Roy Acuff by baseball great Dizzy Dean in 1954. The name fits Mr. Acuff, since he was the biggest country artist of the late thirties and early forties, and was also responsible (along with Fred Rose) for bringing publishing and recording companies to Nashville, making it Music City USA some years later.