Country music star Hank Locklin dies at 91

NASHVILLE, Tenn., (Reuters) – Country music star  Hank Locklin, who helped pioneer the idea of the concept album  and whose songs were popular from Ireland to Japan, has died at  age 91, Grand Ole Opry officials said yesterday.

The singer, songwriter and guitarist died on Sunday at his  home in Brewton, Alabama, of undisclosed causes.
Born Lawrence Hankins Locklin in 1918 in Florida’s  timber-rich Panhandle, he played guitar and sang on radio  stations across the South as a teenager.

He scored his first top 10 country hit with “The Same Sweet  Girls” in 1949 and scored another chart-topper with “Let Me Be  the One” in 1953.

His 1957 recording of “Send Me the Pillow You Dream On”  crossed over from the country to the U.S. and British pop  charts and became a standard for many performers, including  Dwight Yoakam and Dolly Parton.

His recording of “Please Help Me, I’m Falling” spent 14  weeks at the top of the country music charts in 1960, the same  year Locklin joined the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.