“Ronnie and his Joycie were one of those inseparable couples who truly were one. “Country music might well have missed the soulful sounds of Hall of Famer Ronnie Milsap without the passion, acumen and love of Joyce Reeves Milsap,” said Sarah Trahern, CEO of the Country Music Association, which named him entertainer of the year in 1977. She was a supporter, a guiding light and a defender when something wasn’t getting done… and because he couldn’t see faces, she’d be that person for him, too.” Ronnie knew no bounds as an artist and entertainer, and Joyce was there making those connections, filling in any gaps. “Even though it was always the dynamic Ronnie Milsap, Joyce was everywhere and a true part of everything. “I always thought of them as a duo,” said former Sony Nashville chairman Joe Galante, famously a champion of Ronnie Milsap over the decades. The couple’s 56th wedding anniversary would have been Oct. Country music fans and experts often spoke of Ronnie and “Joycie’s” relationship in the same terms as a Johnny-and-June. The couple wed in 1965, more than a decade before the singer came to prominence, and were often characterized as joined at the hip as he rose to become one of country’s biggest stars in the ’70s and ’80s. “If I had been born sighted in western North Carolina … I certainly wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now.Joyce Reeves Milsap, the wife of country star Ronnie Milsap, died Tuesday at age 81. “In some way it’s a blessing that I was born blind,” he once said. In 1986, he established the Ronnie Milsap Foundation to aid the blind and visually impaired. The ebullient performer and original stylist changed the face of country music, but he has never forgotten his own difficult road to stardom and his good fortune along the way.
He’s a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Roy Acuff came up to me in the hall and said, ‘Hey, Ronnie, you want to be a member of the Opry?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He said, ‘Okay, then, you’re going to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry.’”Īlong with his multiple gold and platinum albums, Ronnie has earned six Grammys and many CMA and ACM Awards. “All of a sudden, one night I was over here and Mr. “Eventually she said, ‘I think you need to join the Grand Ole Opry.’ And I said, ‘Well, how do you do that?’ “Before I joined the Opry in 1976, Jeanne Pruett was always getting me to come out here and guest,” Ronnie recalls. The flood of hits wouldn’t let up for 15 years: “Daydreams About Night Things,” “(I’m A) Stand by My Woman Man,” “Smoky Mountain Rain,” “Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night),” “How Do I Turn You On” and “Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me” all stormed the charts. Before one could say “overnight success,” he was signed by RCA and released the two-sided hit, “All Together Now (Let’s Fall Apart)” and “I Hate You.” He followed with “That Girl Who Waits on Tables” and “Pure Love.”Ī year later, he had three No. In 1973, Ronnie moved from Memphis to Nashville. Cale and session work with producer Chips Moman, notably on Elvis Presley’s “Kentucky Rain” and “Don’t Cry Daddy.” During the mid-’60s, he landed a stint with J.J. Instead of continuing with law, he threw himself into music, forming his own band. Ronnie studied pre-law at Young Harris Junior College near Atlanta, eventually earning a scholarship to Emory. But late at night he listened to his favorite country, gospel, and R&anp B broadcasts. He attended Morehead State School for the Blind in Raleigh, where he was given strict classical training.
With a catchy, danceable country pop sound, he dominated radio during the ’70s and ’80s and pushed the genre beyond its rural roots and into mainstream entertainment.īorn blind in a poor region of North Carolina, Ronnie lived with his grandmother until he was 6 years old. Just as Ray Charles brought country music back to rhythm and blues, Ronnie Milsap brought rhythm and blues back to country - and like Charles, he did it his own way.
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