Many of us grow up listening to country music, which is also known as country and western, and hillbilly music. It is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern United States in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as American folk music and blues.
Clyde Julian Foley (June 17, 1910 – September 19, 1968), known professionally as Red Foley, was an American singer, musician, and radio and TV personality who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II.
On September 19, 1968, Foley appeared in two Opry performances in Ft. Wayne, IN, sponsored by the local Sheriff's Posse that included Billy Walker and 19-year-old Hank Williams, Jr., son of his long-time friend Hank Williams. Williams Jr. noted that Foley was somewhat slower than usual that day and had no appetite. Before the second show, according to Walker, Foley came to his dressing room and Walker shared his faith in Christ: Foley said, "Do you think God could ever forgive a sinner like me?" He began to tell me all the rotten things he had done in his life, and I looked him in the face and said, "Red, if God can forgive me, He can forgive you." I prayed with Red. He went out, and the last song he sang was "Peace in the Valley." He came over to side of the stage and said, 'Billy, I've never sung that song and feel the way I do tonight. Foley suffered respiratory failure that night and died in his sleep, prompting Hank Williams, Jr. to write and record (as Luke the Drifter, Jr.) "I Was With Red Foley (The Night He Passed Away"). According to the song, which charted that November, his last words were, "I'm awful tired now, Hank. I've got to go to bed." Foley had sung "Peace in the Valley" at Hank Sr.'s funeral. Foley was interred in Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville.