US singer George Jones dies

Jones, whose career spanned more than six decades and included hits such as “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “Window Up Above,” died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He had been hospitalized since April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure, spokesman Kirt Webster said.
When he was in good form, listeners were treated to a powerful and evocative voice. As his late contemporary Waylon Jennings put it, “If we could all sound like we wanted to, then we’d all sound like George Jones.”
Born in Saratoga, Texas, on Sept. 12, 1931, Jones first began performing for spare change as a boy on the streets of nearby Beaumont. Under the influence of Williams, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell, he graduated to the rough roadhouses of East Texas. Jones had an early marriage, a divorce and a stint in the Marines.
The next two decades brought a string of top 10 songs.
Jones, who was known as “The Possum,” divorced his second wife in 1968 and the next year married one of country’s most popular singers, Tammy Wynette.