Sixteen years after his death in October 2006, Freddy Fender still isn’t in “hillbilly heaven.” That would probably irk him.
“Hillbilly heaven” is how the legendary singer from the Rio Grande Valley referred to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Created by the State of Tennessee and the Country Music Association in the 1960s, the Nashville-based nonprofit and its museum honor the heavyweights of the genre, from Roy Acuff to Faron Young.
It was Fender’s nature to joke about it, to pretend it didn’t sting. It was also a sly reference to the old Tex Ritter hit “Hillbilly Heaven.” But Fender really did want to make history.
“Hopefully, I’ll be the first Mexican American going into hillbilly heaven,” he told The Associated Press in 2004.
The designation remains an elusive milestone in Fender’s storied legacy. Born Baldemar Huerta in San Benito on June 4, 1937, Fender was a country
