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(Excerpt from the article mentioned above)
'Rocky Top' composer Felice Bryant dies at 77
By PETER COOPER
Staff Writer
From Rocky Top to Bye, Bye Love and Wake Up Little Susie,
Country Music Hall of Famer Felice Bryant had a hand in writing
some of the enduring classics of American popular music.
Mrs. Bryant, who with late husband Boudleaux Bryant comprised perhaps
the most significant songwriting team in country music history,
died yesterday morning at her home in Gatlinburg. She was 77 and had
been diagnosed with cancer.
The Bryants' songs helped define the careers of Little Jimmy
Dickens, the Osborne Brothers and other artists. The couple's
creations were integral to the success of The Everly Brothers, who
scored with the aforementioned Bye, Bye Love and Wake Up Little Susie,
and with Sleepless Nights, Problems, Poor Jenny
and Take A Message To Mary.
"Without Boudleaux and Felice, we wouldn't have had
any musical success," Phil Everly said. "We'll miss her."
Mr. Bryant died in 1987 at age 67.
If the Everly Brothers recordings are the Bryants' best-known songs
in 49 states, it's Rocky Top that is ubiquitous in Tennessee.
Popularized by the Osborne Brothers in 1968, the up-tempo tale of
a bucolic hill town has for three decades been a rallying cry
for University of Tennessee athletic programs.
Rocky Top became one of Tennessee's official state songs in 1982, and
it's surely the only state song in America that refers to
a moonshine still.
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