On this day in music, April 6, 1998, 55-year-old country icon Tammy Wynette passed away. Born Virginia Wynette Pugh in Mississippi, she started performing in her teens. In 1967, just one year after releasing her first single, Wynette scored her first of 17 No. 1 singles on the Billboard country chart. In 1968, her signature songs “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and “Stand By Your Man” (a UK No.1 in 1975) brought her wider fame by crossing over into the pop charts. She continued to rack up hits during the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and in 1998 was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In a surprising 1991 collaboration with British avant-garde electronic band KLF, she recorded “Justified and Ancient,” which topped the charts in 18 countries.
In 1971, The Rolling Stones, whose Decca contract had expired the previous year, launched their own label, Rolling Stones Records, in a deal with Atlantic Records. The label introduced the band’s iconic lips and tongue logo, designed by London art student, John Pasche. The label’s inaugural release was Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan At Joujouka, regarded by some as the first world music album.
In 2016, country music troubadour Merle Haggard died on his 79th birthday. Born in California, he spent time in prison as a young man before transforming his life by pursuing a successful career as a singer/songwriter. Haggard was one of the key architects of the 1960s Bakersfield country sound, defined by jangly guitar and soaring lap steel guitar lines. He topped the US country singles chart 36 times between 1966 and 1987; his final album, Timeless, was released in 2015.
In 1974, the California Jam festival took place at a motor speedway track in Ontario, California. Over 200,000 people attended the one-day event, which was headlined by the British bands Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Also on the bill were Earth, Wind & Fire, the Eagles, and Black Sabbath.
In 1968, the British prog-rock group Pink Floyd announced that their co-founder Syd Barrett was no longer with the group. Barrett, who suffered from psychiatric problems, recorded two solo albums in 1970 before withdrawing from the public eye.
In 1998, 48-year-old Wendy O. Williams, who fronted the US punk rock group The Plasmatics, took her own life. Williams was renowned for her shocking onstage antics, which ranged from using explosives to destroy equipment to chainsawing guitars and performing partially nude.
BORN ON APRIL 6
1937: Merle Haggard (Singer/songwriter)
1944: John Stax (Pretty Things)
1947: Tony Conner (Hot Chocolate)
1951: Ralph Cooper (Air Supply)
1953: Christopher Franke (Tangerine Dream)
1965: Frank Black (Pixies)
1978: Robert Glasper
1978: Myleene Klass (Hear’Say)
The Litchfield Masons Golden Fleece Lodge #89 is in the midst of its annual Vidalia onion sale. Orders will be taken until early May, and the onions will arrive in Litchfield in mid-May.
Jim Curry says the Litchfield Masons have been doing this fundraiser since 2015 and piggy-backed off of a fundraiser that was coordinated by the Duluth lodge at that time, but the Litchfield lodge has been doing their own sale for several years and they are now taking orders for lodges in Arlington, Mora, Monticello, Hutchinson and St. Cloud. He says the onions come from Georgia where they are trade-marked.
Curry says KADYL Trucking of Litchfield picks up the onions in Georgia and delivers them to Litchfield in a refrigerated truck, drops them off at Litchfield Building Center, where they are transferred to a flatbed truck and then delivered to his garage where people are able to pick them up. He says no one needs to pay for the onions until they pick them up.
The onions may be pre-ordered by calling or texting Jim at 320-221-1925 and they are $14 for a 10-pound bag. He says the onion sale helps the Masons raise funds for the three $2,000 scholarships that they present to Litchfield High School seniors on awards night in May.
The Gala at the St. Philip’s Church Social Hall in Litchfield is coming up this Friday. Doors open at 5 p.m., with dinner served at 6, and then entertainment by the Black & White Dueling Pianos at 7 p.m.
Brenda Grates says tickets are $50 which includes a 2-meat buffet, and there’s also a booze raffle and several silent auction items. She says some of those items include tickets for Winstock, Willmar Stingers, St. Cloud Rox, St. Paul Saints, Nickelodeon Universe, Kwik Trip car washes and organic goods from Prairie Drifter Farm.
Grates says they’ve had the Black & White Dueling Pianos for entertainment before and they have to book them a year in advance as they come from Las Vegas. She says her committee spends months planning for the Gala and they make it a special night.
Grates says the Gala is a big fundraiser each year for St. Philip’s Church. She says if anyone would like tickets, they may stop at the church office or call her at 693-3313, extension 100.
The Minnesota State Patrol responded to a 2-vehicle crash in Eden Valley Sunday afternoon at 3:31. It occurred at the intersection of Highways 22 and 55.
A 2017 Chevrolet Silverado, driven by 75-year-old Daniel Edward Kramer, was stopped at the intersection of Highway 55 and Highway 22, then proceeded into the intersection and collided with a 2023 Chevrolet Tahoe, driven by 63-year-old Bradley Allan Thompson of Atwater. Kramer received non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to the Paynesville Hospital. Thompson was not injured, nor were the 3 passengers in his vehicle – 89-year-old Carol Amy Thompson of Franklin, 97-year-old Raymond Louis Thompson of Franklin, and 63-year-old Susan Kathryne Thompson of Atwater. Also responding to the scene were the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office, Watkins Ambulance, Eden Valley Fire Dept., and Eden Valley Rescue.
Each day a business will be featured as “Business of the Day” and every time their commercial is aired be the 7th caller and win a chance to receive KLFD Bucks to be spent at our “Business of the Day” locations.
Monday thru Friday, at 4 pm we will draw out a winner to be put into our final drawing to be held sometime later in April. Once your name has been drawn out daily and put into the final drawing, you are no longer qualified to call in. Otherwise, you can keep calling in once a day to qualify.
Our sponsors include: Miller Automotive, Litchfield Liquors, DC Diesel Tek, El Chilero, Parts City Auto Parts, Scott’s Auto, Litchfield Chrysler, Litchfield Licensing, Davis Motors, Mid Country Bank, Queen Bee’s Bar & Grill, A.M. Maus & Son, Litchfield Eagles Club, SJP Designs, Central Counties Cooperative, Edina Realty, Quality Autowerx
