Country music singer Johnny Duncan, known for songs like “She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed Anytime” and “It Couldn’t Have Been Any Better,” has died. He was 67.
Duncan, who had a string of country hits in the 1970s, died Monday of a heart attack at a Fort Worth, Texas, hospital, said Jim Harrell, owner and funeral director of Harrell Funeral Home in Dublin, which is handling arrangements.
“He knew when he was 12 years old that playing music and singing songs was going to be his life,” said his wife, Connie Duncan, 54.
She said that after splitting time between Nashville and their Stephenville farm, they moved back to Texas about 15 years ago to live on the farm not far from the town of Dublin, where Duncan was born on Oct. 5, 1938.
“He grew up here in a small country town and loved music,” Harrell said. “His mother played herself and a lot of his cousins played with him.” His cousins became famous as well — Jimmy Seals of Seals & Croft and country singer Dan Seals.
After moving to Nashville, Duncan began writing songs and country singers like Charley Pride and Conway Twitty recorded his music. Janie Fricke, who had hits like “Down to My Last Broken Heart” in the 1980s, said her music career started when she got a chance as a studio singer to sing a line in Duncan’s song “Jo and the Cowboy.”
After that, she was asked back to sing with him in hits like “Stranger” and “Thinkin’ of a Rendezvous.” “That’s what put my name on the map,” Fricke said.
“He was a very sweet guy. We became very close friends,” said Fricke, who lives near Dallas. “He touched a lot of hearts and touched a lot of lives during his time.”
Duncan has four daughters with his first wife and one son with Connie Duncan.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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