When
Jim Reeves died he had recorded around 400 songs, many unreleased tracks and his widow
Mary followed a brilliant marketing policy whereby unheard material would be
placed alongside previously issued tracks to make a new album.
Sometimes existing tracks were remastered and duets were
constructed with Deborah Allen and the late Patsy Cline.
Jim Reeves
became a best-selling album artist to such an extent that 40 Golden
Greats topped the album charts in 1975. There wasn't a year
between 1970 and 1984 that there wasn't a Jim Reeves single in the
charts, either at the top of the charts or in the lower regions of
the charts. Jim Reeves was inducted into the Country Music Hall of
Fame in 1967 and two years later, the Academy of Country Music
instituted the Jim Reeves Memorial Award.
His
widow, Mary Reeves, 70, passed away on Veteran's Day, November
11th, 1999, reportedly dying alone in the nursing home where she
had been confined for the last several years. Mary's steady
decline was a tragedy which grieved her family and friends long
before her passing. She had stopped eating, and the decision was
apparently made not to try to sustain life via artificial means.
Although
there was a public viewing, the funeral was closed to her many
close friends and co-workers on orders of her second husband,
Terry Davis.
Jim
Reeves and Mary
Elizabeth White had been married for 17 years when he died. Their
marriage was childless. From the time of Jim
Reeves' death in 1964 in the airplane crash until the onset of her
Alzheimer's disease in the mid-'90s, Mary was instrumental in
keeping Jim Reeves' music and memory alive. Much of the success of
the Jim Reeves Legend has been attributed to her.
Because
of Mary Reeves Davis' incapacity to continue to manage the Reeves
estate, its assets were sold to United Shows of America in 1997
for $7.3 million, a story in the Nashville Tennessean
reported. The estate included the museum, real estate, memorabilia
and Reeves' record royalties.
"If I, a lowly
singer, dry one tear, or soothe one humble heart in pain, then my
homely verse to God is dear, and not one stanza has been sung in
vain ... "
Monument
Inscription in Carthage, Texas
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