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(Excerpt from the article mentioned above)
Associated Press
Dave Dudley, a Wisconsin native who had a hit record in the 1960s with
the truck-driving song "Six Days on the Road," has died. He was 75.
Dudley, who was born in Spencer as Darwin David Pudraska, died Monday night
of an apparent heart attack, said his wife, Marie.
Dudley, who grew up in Stevens Point, recorded more than 70 albums during his career.
Playground chums dubbed him "Duddy," a nickname that came in handy years later
when he picked Dave Dudley as his stage name. He formed the Dave Dudley Trio
in the early 1950s, and the band stayed together for seven years.
Dudley moved to Minnesota in 1960 and formed the Country Gentlemen.
He got his big break in 1963 when he introduced "Six Days on the Road." It
became a hit and solidified his image as a friend of the working class.
One of the first stations to play the song was WOKY-AM, a Milwaukee rock station.
In 2002, following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.,
Dudley returned to the studio to record "Dave Dudley, American Trucker," a hard-edged tribute
to truckers that included two songs talking to terrorists who might want
to tangle with the folks who drive the big rigs.
Dudley's life included stints as a minor league baseball pitcher, a railroad hand
in the yards at Stevens Point and a radio performer and disc jockey who worked
in several Midwest states.
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