COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND SLIM WHITMAN HAS NOT DIED!!

I'm happy to report that Slim Whitman  is still alive. Yesterday, Leo Jackson informed me that he had received a message that  Slim Whitman had died on Saturday night, at the age of 84.
 

When I searched the Web for more information, I discovered that the websites of both CMT and the Nashville Tennessean newspaper had retracted news reports about it. Checking with the head of a well known record company who had send Leo that message, confirmed that  someone had send that message in error.

Slim Whitman, was born as Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. on January 20, 1924 in Tampa, Florida and was living in Middleburg, Florida.

He released his first single in 1948 and joined the Louisiana Hayride He had a few big hits such as "Love Song of the Waterfall" and "Indian Love Call".

Jim was at a recording session in the studio of KWKH and after finishing "Penny Candy" wanted to do another song but they had to leave the studio as Slim Whitman had arrived and wanted to record a few songs. Slim Whitman was at that time a bigger star than Jim Reeves. Leo remembers it well, as it was his first recording session with Jim.

Tommy Overstreet remembered that when he was 16 years old, he appeared weekly on a local TV show in Abilene, Texas called "The Slim Willet Show". Each week Slim had him sing a Slim Whitman song. He was an idol of Tommy, and later he got to know him. David Houston and him loved his singing and copied him as best they could.

Slim Whitman was very popular in the British Isles and I remember attending a sold-out show he did in Croydon, near London, in the early 90's.