ABSTRACT
American country singer, guitarist, and songwriter, born in Flat River, Missouri, on 3 Dec 1927. He was self-taught on the guitar, while pursuing an interest in radio announcing. He held a number of disc jockey jobs, achieving success in Bakersfield, California. For variety, he introduced a comic character-played by himself-named Simon Crum, and made some records for Capitol in that guise. He used the name Terry Preston for country songs. In the 1950s he gained national acclaim as a singer on radio and television, and made a motion picture, Country Music Holiday (1958). Husky had a long list of chart records, 50 singles between 1957 and 1980. “Gone” (Capitol 3628; 1957) was the first, 20 weeks on the country charts. His greatest hit was “Wings of a Dove” (Capitol 4406; 1960), which charted for 37 weeks, almost one-half of them in the number one position. Despite having open heart surgery in 1977, he has continued to record and perform through the 1990s, although without scoring any hits.
