
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 2, 1995                   TAG: 9502020059
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BLUES PLAYER TURNER FODDRELL DIES

Turner Foddrell, who played his country-blues music from Patrick County square dances to the Lincoln Center in New York City, died Tuesday from cancer. He was 66.

A Stuart native, Turner grew up in a log cabin with nine brothers and sisters. He learned the rural-roots style of blues music from his parents and played for free at hoedowns and in tobacco barns.

It wasn't until 1971, after radio disc jockey Harry Litten heard Turner play guitar at the Foddrell grocery store, that his blues sound reached a wide audience.

"He had that certain style that so many people liked," Litten said.

He took Turner and his son, Lynn, to meet Roddy Moore, director of Ferrum College's Blue Ridge Institute.

Moore booked the Foddrell duet into the institute's Folklife Festival in 1973. After that, they recorded two albums and sang the blues at the Smithsonian Institution, Wolf Trap Park and the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tenn.

by CNB