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Country
Music and Radio Legend Billy Parker and wife Jerri Parker have given
their endorsement to Scott Walton to be the next sheriff of Rogers
County.
“Our family is proud to know and be a
friend of Scott Walton who is known and respected everywhere he
goes,” Parker said.
Billy Parker is a native Oklahoman who
grew up in country music, playing guitar and singing since age 11
and singing professionally since age 14. With many nationally
charted records to his credit, he has played and sung with the best
of them: Bob Wills, Red Foley and Ernest Tubb. He has appeared on
the Grand Old Opry, Hee Haw,
and on the Nashville Network's
Nashville Now.
Parker began his
radio career in Tulsa in 1959 at KFMJ and did radio and TV in Tulsa
with stops at Witchita's KFDI and Oklahoma City's KLPR. Billy left
Tulsa to become the front man for the Texas Troubadours, backing
band for the famed Ernest Tubb. While a Texas Troubadour, he toured
continually and worked with many of the greatest names in country
music, including Bob Wills.
Tiring of the road
but continuing his country music recording career, Parker joined
Clear-Channel giant KVOO in 1971. There, he began his ascension to
country radio superstardom. It didn't take long for the industry to
notice, either. In 1974, only three years after he'd begun his radio
show on KVOO, the Country Music Association awarded him a Disc
Jockey of the Year honor. The next year, the Los Angeles based
Academy of Country Music followed suit, recognizing Parker as its
Disc Jockey of the Year in 1975 and again in 1977, 1978, and in
1984. In the '90's the accolades continued. He was inducted into the
Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 1992, the Western Swing
Hall of Fame in 1993, and scored the Oklahoma Association of
Broadcasters' Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.
Billy was inducted
into the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in 1998
and he received the Oklahoma Governor's Award at the Oklahoma Hall
of Fame in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1999. In the year 2000 he was
honored by the Texas Country Music Association in Austin, Texas and
inducted into the Texas Country Music Association Hall of Fame.
Through
it all, he's continued with his recordings and live performances.
Among his best-known hits are 1982's “Who's Gonna Sing The Last
Country Song,” 1978's “Until The Next Time,” and an evergreen called
“Lord, If I make It To Heaven (Can I Bring My Own Angel Along),” a
1977 single that is one of his most requested songs to this day. His
many albums include a gospel offering, “I'll Speak Out For You,
Jesus,” which earned him the Top Country Personality Award from the
International Gospel Music Association.
He later recorded
a tribute release on Sims Records produced by his long time friend
Russell Sims entitled “Swinging With Bob.” Billy gives credit to his
friend Bart Barton (The General) for sticking with him through the
years as well as the late Owen Bradley of Decca Records and the late
Mama Gibson for believing in him.
Billy knows,
appreciates and loves western swing music and the people who made,
and make it. His love of KVOO doesn't only prove that. It also shows
that this Hall of Famer is a man, who after al his honors and
achievements, remains a major force in country music.
Parker said that
he and his family have come to know and trust Walton through the
years and that they are pleased to see him seeking the sheriff's
seat. “I know Scott as a friend and as a lawman who really cares
about people and is out to enforce the law with the deepest
respect.”
“I've
known Scott for sometime now and I have never met anyone I could or
would trust more than him,” Parker said.
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