Died On This Date (March 2, 2009) Ernie Ashworth / Country Music Great
themusicsover Ernie Ashworth
December 15, 1928 – March 2, 2009
Ernie Ashworth was a popular country performer as well as a successful songwriter. A member of the Grand Ole Opry, Ashworth released two albums which contained seven Top 10 country hits including the #1 “Talk Back Trembling Lips.” As a tunesmith, his songs have been recorded by the likes of Paul Anka, Little Jimmy Dickens, and Carl Smith. In later years, he purchased a Tennessee radio station. Ernie Ashworth remained active in country music through the time of his death of natural causes at the age of 80.
Although he lost his site to retinoblastoma at just eight months, Jeff Healey would grow to become one of the greatest blues guitarists the world had ever seen. He could definitely hold his own alongside such greats as Eric Clapton, 
Richard Pegue was a popular Chicago R&B radio disc jockey for the better part of forty years. He also penned a handful of R&B songs that managed to get recorded. Pegue was just eleven when he first took an interest to the broadcast medium, thanks to a reel-to-reel tape recorder that was given to him by his grandmother. By his teens, he was DJ’ing local parties and dances. Before long, Pegue was spinning records at radio stations throughout Chicago and Indiana. During the late ’80s he helped develop the popular “urban oldies” format. He continued working in radio into the 2000s. Richard Pegue was 66 when he passed away on March 2, 2009.
Mike Smith was the lead singer of the Dave Clark Five, the second British Invasion group to hit U.S. shores during the early ’60s. They would be the only competition for the Beatles until the Rolling Stones reared their ugly head and music lovers suddenly saw a whole new side to British pop music. After the Dave Clark Five disbanded in 1970, Smith continued to record and produce throughout the eighties and nineties and then enjoyed modest success on the oldies circuit through the early years of the 21st century. In 2003, Smith seriously injured his spinal cord in a fall at his home. The fall left him paralyzed from the waist down and in his arms. He passed away from complications of that fall in 2008, just two weeks shy of being inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Dave Clark Five.