{"id":8457,"date":"2012-09-09T09:37:34","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T09:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=8457"},"modified":"2012-09-09T09:37:34","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T09:37:34","slug":"rollinoscar-sullivan-opry-star-dies-at-age-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/09\/rollinoscar-sullivan-opry-star-dies-at-age-93\/","title":{"rendered":"Rollin\u201cOscar\u201d Sullivan, \u2018Opry\u2019 star Dies At Age 93"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Rollin\u201cOscar\u201d Sullivan, longtime \u2018Opry\u2019 star with duo Lonzo& Oscar, dies at age 93<\/h1>\n

Posted on September 7, 2012<\/a> by Peter Cooper<\/a>\u00a0July 19, 1919 – Sept. 7, 2012<\/strong>
\nRollin \u201cOscar\u201d Sullivan, who starred on the\u201cGrand Ole Opry\u201d with duo Lonzo & Oscar for 38 years, died in hospice care in Madison on Friday. He was 93, and leaves a legacy of music and humor, bound together in some of country music\u2019s most smile-provoking songs, including\u201cDid You Have To Bring That Up (While I Was Eatin\u2019),\u201d \u201cHole in the Bottom of the Sea\u201d and signature tune,\u201cI\u2019m My Own Grandpa.\u201d
\nMr. Sullivan grew up in Cedar Flat, Ky., playing music and listening to the \u201cOpry\u201d on the radio. He and brother Johnny Sullivan formed a duo and began playing on a Jackson, Tenn., radio station before Mr. Sullivan joined Paul Howard\u2019s Arkansas Cotton Pickers at the\u201cOpry\u201d in 1942.
\nIn 1945, the Sullivan brothers joined Lloyd George in the band of country legend Eddy Arnold, and for comic relief during Arnold\u2019s shows, Mr. Sullivan and George developed a comedy act that came to be known as Lonzo & Oscar. The duo would become \u201cOpry\u201d members themselves in 1947, and they began recording for RCA Victor Records.George is now known as \u201cthe first Lonzo,\u201d as he left for a solo career in 1950, and brother Johnny became the second and longest-running Lonzo.
\nThe brothers, who also recorded for Capitol, Starday, Columbia and their own Nugget Records, were best known for their comedy, but Mr. Sullivan\u2019s mandolin playing was another strong selling point. \u201cHe was a fine mandolin player,\u201d says\u201cOpry\u201d announcer and 650 AM WSM air personality Eddie Stubbs.\u201cHis playing was melodic, clean and commercial. There was nothing funny about Lonzo & Oscar\u2019s singing and playing: They laid it down.\u201d
\nMr. Sullivan withstood some tragedies during his life and career. In 1959, he was hospitalized for five months after an accident that killed his wife, Ruth, and his brother, Phil. \u201cDuring this time, I felt like I had lost everything,\u201d he told niece Carol Sullivan, for a column she wrote in 2010 for www.ColumbiaMagazine.com<\/a>. \u201cI couldn\u2019t work, my wife was gone, my brother was gone, and I was in shock.\u201d
\nHe recovered from that accident, and Lonzo & Oscar returned to the \u201cOpry\u201d stage. But in 1967, Johnny Sullivan died of a heart attack. Mr. Sullivan regrouped and found a musician named Dave Hooten to become the next Lonzo. Mr. Sullivan worked with Hooten until they decided to retire from the \u201cOpry\u201d in 1985, though Mr. Sullivan continued to perform some shows, first with Cleo C. Hogan and finally with musician and songwriter Billy Henson. Henson purchased the rights to the Lonzo & Oscar name in 1999.
\nA visitation will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 10, at the Bethel Primitive Baptist Church, 515 Long Hollow Pike in Goodlettsville. A memorial service will take place at Bethel at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, with burial to follow at Forest Lawn cemetery, 1150 S. Dickerson Road in Goodlettsville.<\/strong>
\nReach Peter Cooper at (615) 259-8220 or pcooper@tennessean.com<\/a>.
\nArticle sent in by Marty Martel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rollin\u201cOscar\u201d Sullivan, longtime \u2018Opry\u2019 star with duo Lonzo& Oscar, dies at age 93 Posted on September 7, 2012 by Peter Cooper\u00a0July 19, 1919 – Sept. 7, 2012 Rollin \u201cOscar\u201d Sullivan, who starred on the\u201cGrand Ole Opry\u201d with duo Lonzo & Oscar for 38 years, died in hospice care in Madison on Friday. He was 93, and leaves a legacy of music and humor, bound together in some of country music\u2019s most smile-provoking songs, including\u201cDid You Have To Bring That Up (While I Was Eatin\u2019),\u201d \u201cHole in the Bottom of the<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}