ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 11, 1996 TAG: 9612110056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NASHVILLE, TENN.
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
Country singer Faron Young, who for decades cast a long shadow over Nashville's music industry, died Tuesday after shooting himself in the head.
Friend and band member Ray Emmitt found the mortally wounded singer after he shot himself Monday in his house in Nashville. A suicide note indicated he was despondent over his failing health, police said.
Young, 64, had suffered from emphysema and undergone prostate surgery, and friends said he had seemed depressed over both his career and his health.
In his heyday during the late 1950s and '60s, hardly a week passed in which Young didn't have a hit on Billboard's country music charts. His hits included the classic Willie Nelson song ``Hello Walls.''
Young also scored hits with ``Sweet Dreams,'' ``Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young,'' and ``Country Girl,'' but his last charted hit was ``Here's to You,'' which spent two weeks on the Billboard charts in 1989.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 29 linesby CNB