HAPPY TRAILS

ROY CLARK enjoyed a decades-long career in country music marked by such highlights as sharing concert stages with Hank Williams and Wanda Jackson; charting numerous Top 10 singles (including “Yesterday, When I Was Young,” “Thank God and Greyhound,” and “Come Live With Me”) and albums; performing countless times with the Grand Ole Opry (which made him a member in 1987); acting in a wide range of films and TV series (including Uphill All the Way, a 1986 comic western in which he costarred with Mel Tillis, Glen Campbell, and Burl Ives); and receiving honors ranging from CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year awards to his 2009 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

But Clark likely will continue to, the country-flavored variety show set in the fictional Kornfield Kounty that ran for two seasons on CBS (1969 – 71), continued for a total of 24 years in firstrun syndication and on The Nashville Network, and remains popular in reruns on RFD-TV and home video. With equal measures of affable showmanship and exceptional musicianship, Clark was the driving force on a series that many people credited for increasing the national and international audience for country music. Indeed, as noted in its obituary for Clark: “At the peak of its popularity, in the ’70s, [] reached 30 million viewers a week.”