Charley Pride 1938
Major Works
- Amy's Eyes
- Amazing Love
- Honky Tonk Blues
- I Don't Think She's in Love Anymore
- Mountain of Love
- Roll on Mississippi
- Should It Be Easier Than This
- The Snakes Crawl at Night
- Kiss an Angel Good Morning
- Just Between You and Me
- Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town
- I'm So Afraid of Losing You Again
- Is Anybody Goin' To San Antone?
- Whole Lotta Things to Sing About
- Sail Away
- I Made Love to You in My Mind
- Moody Woman
- I'm Just Me
- The Day The World Stood Still
- and many, many more
Photo above: Charley Pride at
the 2008 Mississippi Governor's Awards by Nancy Jacobs
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2008 UPDATE: Charley Pride was the winner
of the Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts
in Lifetime Achievement for 2008 presented by the Mississippi
Arts Commission.
Charley Pride:
A Biography
By Damien Allen (SHS)
Charley Frank Pride was born in Sledge, Mississippi,
on March 18, 1938. Charley's parents were both sharecroppers
and cotton pickers. In 1956 Charley's mother died. Charley's
father retired from driving school buses and cutting hair, and
today lives in Quitman County. Before Charley's mother died,
she and his father had eleven children: eight boys and three
girls. Since he was young and couldn't decide for himself what
he could or couldn't do, he was forced to pick cotton as a child.
However, he grew up listening to country music. He walked around
the house singing songs of Hank Williams and Roy Acuff. At the
age of six, his happiest moments were spent listening to the
Grand Ole Opry on the country music radio station. As the days,
weeks, and months went by,  Charley
was given the nickname "Mocking Bird" by a neighbor who says
Charley's daily chores were to sing each morning and to play
baseball. When Charley Pride was fourteen, he bought his first
guitar from Sears and Roebuck and taught himself how to play
by listening to different songs on the radio. Charley
didn't want to follow his father's footsteps. His plan was to
become famous in baseball, but his dream was to be a country
singer. At the age of seventeen, he began to seek his fortune.
Like any seventeen-year-old, Charley had to get a job, but
no matter where Charley Pride went, he still carried his guitar
tucked under his arms. Charley entered a talent contest at Lave's
Grand Theater in Memphis, Tennessee. The following day, Charley
left to attend baseball training camp. Charley's career was
a combination of baseball and singing. Some days when he had
a game, he would walk seven miles to pitch nine innings. When
the game was over, he would walk back home. In 1955 he began
playing for the American Negro League. Charley played for Detroit,
Michigan; Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama. Then
for two years Charley stopped playing baseball to serve in the
military. While in the military, Pride married Rozene Cockren,
a cosmetologist from Oxford, Mississippi. They have three
children: Kraig, Dion, and Angela. They now also have two grandsons,
Carlton and Malachi and live in Dallas, Texas.
In 1958, he returned to baseball in the American Negro
League where he played with the Birmingham Black Barons. In
1959 Charley Pride spent time working by unloading wood, and
playing baseball for Memphis until he was cut from the team.
Charley decided to go to Montana to work out, but while he was
there he got a job at the Zinc Smelting Manning Company. There
he also played semi-professional baseball in Montana. Pride
also worked in club Helena two nights a weeks.
 By
1960, Pride left semi-professional baseball and the American
Negro League to play for a C-team. He also had a chance to try
out for the Angels, but he was rejected. Pride tried for the
last time to play for the New York Mets. Charley bought six
bats and engraved his name in them. He sent the bats along with
a telegram to the Mets camp at St. Petersburg. The manager didn't
like Pride because he thought Charley Pride was trying to fit
in with the country people. So Charley sent a telegram saying
"I'm not a black man singing white man music, I am an American
singing American music. I worked out those problem years ago,
and everybody else will have to work their way out of it too."
As a result, the manager told the other players if they wanted
to see Charley Pride tryout, they would have to take Pride out
to a pasture because he wasn't running a tryout camp. That's
what ended Charley Pride's baseball career. 
Charley went back home where he was to audition and be presented
to Jack Clement, Clement was a song writer and record producer.
After the audition, Charley proved to Chet Atkins and the manager
for the Mets that he wasn't trying to fit in with the whites,
he was just a business man singing American music. Chet Atkins,
vice-president of RCA recording in Nashville, realized that
Charley Pride's country singing was a talent. This led Pride
to a RCA recording contract.
Two of his best and popular records are Snakes Crawl at
Night, and Just Between You and Me, which earned
a Grammy in 1968. Pride's first number one hit on the singles
chart was ("All I Have to Offer You Is Me" in 1964. "Kiss an
Angel Good Morning" was a million-selling crossover single recorded
in 1971. Charley Pride now has more than 36 number one country
singles. He has produced more than 35 albums.
 Charley
Pride has had a great career. On May 1, 1993, Pride joined the
Grand Ole Opry. In 1994, the Academy Of Country Music presented
him with its prestigious Pioneer Award. In 1994 his autobiography
Pride: The Charley Pride Story was
published by William Morrow. In 1996, he received a Trumpet
Award by Turner Broadcasting, marking outstanding African-American
Achievement. His song "Roll On Mississippi" was considered as
the official song of his home state, a stretch of Mississippi
highway was named for him, and he performed a special Christmas
performance for President and Mrs. Clinton at the White House.
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
In 2008 Charley Pride's talent earned him the state of Mississippi's
top arts award for lifetime achievement in the 2008 Governor's
Awards for Excellence in the Arts.
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Timeline
1938-Charley Pride was born in Sledge, Mississippi
1946-Charley listened to the Grand Ole Opry.
1952-Charley bought his first guitar.
1954-Pride tried to seek his fortune by keeping steady jobs.
1956-Charley stopped playing baseball to serve time
in the military.
1958-Pride returned to baseball and played for the American
Negro League.
1959-Charley Pride went to Memphis to work and play baseball
with the Red Sox, but was dropped from the team.
1961-Pride sent his newspaper clippings to Los Angeles
Angels.
1965-Pride's first hit single was The Snakes Crawl at Night.
1966-Charley won a Grammy Nomination for best County and Western
Male Vocal performance.
1972-Pride was named both Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the
Year.
1975-Pride for the first time sang at the Grand Ole Opry.
1967-Pride was signed with RCA recordings.1993-- joined the
Grand Ole Opry
1994-- Charley published his autobiography, Pride:
The Charley Pride Story. -- the Academy Of Country
Music gave him its prestigious Pioneer Award.
1999--Received a Trumpet Award from Turner and a star on the
the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2000--was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
2001- April-- Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Charley Pride
's CD called A Tribute to Jim Reeves,
the first commercial release encoded to prevent tracks from
being copied to PCs or uploaded to the internet
2008 --Charley Pride named winner of the (Mississippi) Governor's
Award for Excellence in the Arts in Lifetime Achievement.
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Bibliography
Clarke, Donald. "Charley Pride" The Penguin Encyclopedia
of Popular Music. New York; The Penguins Group, 1989.937.938.
"History of Country Music." at http://www. countrym...g/awards/
72_76.htm/,1996. La Blanc, Michael L. "Charley Pride."
Contemporary Musicians Volume Four. Detroit;
Gale Research Inc., 1991.196.198.
Sewell, Alexander George and Dwight, Margaret L. "Pioneer Black
Country Music Superstars." Mississippi Black History Makers.
Jackson; University of Mississippi, 984.315.316.317.318.319.320.
"Thirty Years of Pride." by Rene Ray at http://www.branson....articles/cpride.txt,1997.
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