Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Eddie Rosario and Co. lead the Nats to an MLB-best 12th comeback win

CJ Abrams keeps getting better. It’s time to think about an extension.

Sloppy first inning dooms the Nationals in a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

Trump’s vice presidential supplicants toe the line on election fraud

Election 2024 latest news: After big weekend in Palm Beach, Trump returns to N.Y. courtroom

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

Improper ‘shadow’ ads thriving on Facebook during India’s election

Bosses mandated them back to the office. They took legal action instead.

How TikTok changed fashion

Book excerpt: The admiral who had a mental breakdown over Fat Leonard

How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workers

Don’t be a jerk at the airport: A guide for headphones

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

How did we end up with a Biden-Trump matchup again?

Under Putin, a militarized new Russia rises to challenge U.S. and the West 

Noem explains inclusion of story about shooting pet dog

Historic floods kill 83, leaving Brazil and its president shaken, angry

Missing surfers from U.S., Australia confirmed dead by Mexico

We reported for months on changes sweeping Russia. Here’s what we found.  

Kim Godwin steps down suddenly as president of ABC News

The ‘Access Hollywood’ video cemented Trump’s air of invincibility

The New York Times, alone in its outrage over access to Biden

Carolyn Hax: Sisters were close — then one accused the other’s husband of abuse

Miss Manners: I’m bothered by a fellow guest not touching their dessert

Ask Amy: My estranged wife is telling my son I’m an adulterer

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Russia is using toxic chemical weapons, wrecking a ban it helped create

There’s still time for Congress to Trump-proof the Insurrection Act 

The Post endorses April McClain Delaney and Tom Royals for Maryland’s 6th District

President Joe Biden White House Cinco de Mayo Reception

Tom T. Hall, one of country music’s most prolific songwriters who penned a number of popular hits recorded by other artists — including the Grammy Award-winning “Harper Valley P.T.A.” in 1968 — before showcasing his own vocals and guitar picking as a popular headline entertainer, died on  Aug. 20 at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 85.

His son, Dean Hall, confirmed the death but didn’t immediately provide a cause.

The plain-spoken Mr. Hall was first and foremost a gifted writer, which led to his nickname, “The Storyteller.” He was listed among Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 greatest songwriters. In a career that spanned five decades, Mr. Hall composed unflinching songs about working-class life in small towns that are by turns poignant, insightful and sardonic.

“He, Dolly Parton and a handful of others really lifted the craft of country song writing to a new level of sophistication, insight and sensitivity that generations of fans will still respond to,” author and music historian Robert K. Oermann said in an interview. “His songs are so extraordinary . . . He just tells you the tale and by doing so makes you feel passionately, whether it’s war or love or politics. At his finest, he is deeply insightful on the human condition.”

Mr. Hall wrote 12 songs that reached No. 1 one on Billboard’s country music chart and more than 25 Top 10 songs. His biggest hits as a performer included “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died,” “I Like Beer,” “Faster Horses (The Cowboy and the Poet),” “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine,” “A Week in a Country Jail,” “That’s How I Got to Memphis” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk64JluO4CI">I Love</a>,” in which he recounted all the things he cherished from “little baby ducks, old pickup trucks . . . I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups.”

Mr. Hall had some early success writing songs for country performers such as Dave Dudley, Johnnie Wright and Jimmy C. Newman. His first song to reach No. 1 was Wright’s recording of the war ballad “Hello Vietnam” in 1965. Newman had Top 10 country hits with Mr. Hall’s “D.J. for a Day” (1963) and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkiTws2Y9FQ">Back Pocket Money</a>” (1966), which recounts the story of a man whose wife controls the family purse strings to keep her husband faithful.

Sure cuts down on the runnin’ around

Thomas T. Hall was born on May 25, 1936, in Olive Hill, a small town in eastern Kentucky. He was one of eight children. His father was a laborer and part-time minister who worked at a brick plant, and his mother was a homemaker.

From an early age, Mr. Hall was a prolific reader and was captivated by music broadcasts on the radio, including Ernest Tubb’s “Midnite Jamboree.” He wrote in his autobiographical “The Storyteller’s Nashville” — originally published in 1979 and expanded in 2016 — that he knew from the age of 4 that he would someday be a songwriter in Nashville. A Christmas poem he wrote when he was 8 provided an early glimpse of the imagery and emotion he would later convey in his songs:

When he was about 9, Mr. Hall visited the home of a friend who had a guitar but no interest in playing it. He seized the opportunity and learned to play chords on his own. Around the same time, he began to write songs. Overhearing a young married couple arguing next door, the line “Haven’t I been good to you?” stuck in his head as a lyric that he would build his first song around.

Mr. Hall’s teen years were marked by tragedy. His mother died of cancer when he was 13, and his father was severely injured in an accidental shooting, leading Mr. Hall to drop out of school in the ninth grade. He cared for his father and siblings, worked in a textile factory and as a gravedigger while performing with a bluegrass band that had a lot of airtime on radio stations in the region.

He went on to serve in the U.S. Army for four years beginning in 1957. Stationed in Germany, he performed original songs on the Armed Forces radio Network, traveled with a western swing band and earned a high school diploma.

After the Army stint, Mr. Hall studied at Roanoke College in Virginia worked as a DJ for a number of radio stations, including WBLU in Roanoke. It was there that he met Jimmy Key, a music publisher with NewKeys Publishing. He sold several songs to Key before the publishing company offered to pay him a weekly draw of $50 to move to Nashville. The weekly draw was an advance payment against the royalties Hall hoped to earn on the sale of songs.

He arrived in Nashville on New Year’s Day of 1964 and treated songwriting as a full-time job. He wrote five or six songs per week in longhand on yellow legal pads, later transitioning to an antique typewriter. Despite some early success, Mr. Hall said he was making so little money after a year in Nashville that he contemplated returning to radio.

Key encouraged him to stick it out. What followed was a decades-long career as a songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, weaving his narrative storytelling, philosophy and poetry with toe-tapping melodies. By the time Mr. Hall had signed with Mercury Records in 1967, he had added the middle initial “T” to his name. He released his debut album, “Ballad of Forty Dollars,” in 1969.

Over the years, some of the biggest names in country music would record Mr. Hall’s songs, including Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn and Waylon Jennings. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and was named to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.

Mr. Hall’s biggest hit as a songwriter was the cultural touchstone “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZPBUu7Fro">Harper Valley P.T.A.</a>,” recorded by Jeannie C. Riley, who won a Grammy in 1968 for best female country vocal performance. “Harper Valley P.T.A.” sold millions of copies, hit No. 1 on the country chart and spawned a movie and a television series starring Barbara Eden.

The song tells the story of a widowed woman, Mrs. Johnson, who receives a letter from the PTA criticizing her for wearing short dresses and for “drinking and a-running ’round with men and goin’ wild.” Mrs. Johnson shows up at the next PTA meeting wearing a miniskirt and highlights the hypocrisy of the other board members, concluding:

And then you have the nerve to tell me

You think as a mother I’m not fit

Well, this is just a little Peyton Place

You’re all Harper Valley hypocrites

Mr. Hall said that he wrote the song two years before it was published but had the idea for 20 years. Much like his first song, it captured a scene from his childhood in Olive Hill.

“When I was a small boy, there was a lady in town who had taken on the entire PTA for their indiscretions,” he wrote in “A Storyteller’s Nashville.”

“The idea stuck with me for years,” he added. “It was on this balmy afternoon in 1966, sitting at my checkered tablecloth, that I came up with the actual song. It was not hard to write, and I don’t recall that it took more than an hour or so.”

His first marriage, to Opal “Hootie” McKinney, ended in divorce. Survivors include their son.

Mr. Hall’s second wife, the former Iris “Dixie” Lawrence, died in 2015 after 45 years of marriage. They wrote bluegrass songs together and were named bluegrass songwriters of the year 12 times by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America. Both were inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

In 1972, Mr. Hall won a Grammy for best album notes for “Tom T. Hall’s Greatest Hits.” He expanded his writing to include two novels and the book “How I Write Songs, Why You Can.”

“Most of my songs are biographical,” Mr. Hall said at a live show at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville in 2011. “I was not very good at making up songs. I was a very proficient liar, you’d think I could have made up a song . . . It didn’t work for me so I just wrote down things I knew about.”

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/">Washington Post obituaries</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/charley-pride-first-major-black-star-in-country-music-dies-at-86/2020/12/12/d0295cd2-3dfe-11e9-922c-64d6b7840b82_story.html">Charley Pride, first major Black star in country music, dies at 86 of covid-19</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/billy-joe-shaver-singer-songwriter-who-inspired-outlaw-country-dies-at-81/2020/10/29/7fd00fc4-19e9-11eb-aeec-b93bcc29a01b_story.html">Billy Joe Shaver, singer-songwriter who inspired outlaw country, dies at 81</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mac-davis-singer-songwriter-who-blended-country-and-pop-dies-at-78/2020/09/30/3b0ef1da-025f-11eb-b7ed-141dd88560ea_story.html">Mac Davis, singer-songwriter who blended country and pop, dies at 78</a>

Louie Estrada

The Washington Post

INVL

Wade Payne/Invision/AP

Wade Payne

Tom T. Hall

Search Death Notices

Place a Death Notice

Request a News Obituary

Obituaries

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economic_sector/media/music_industry

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/music/musical_genre/country_music

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economic_sector/media

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/music/musical_genre/jazz_music

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/music/musical_genre

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/literature

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/music

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/music/musical_genre/popular_music

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/literature/poetry

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/music/musical_genre/folk_music

client-blocklists/Client List: Morgan Stanley KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Amazon KWs - EXCLUDE ALL 

client-blocklists/Client List: Becton Dickinson KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/CLIENT LIST: Nomura KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Boeing KWs 2021- INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Bed Bath & Beyond KWs - INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Exxon Mobil  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/WaPo: Combined Disaster Keyword List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Microsoft KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Arts & Entertainment_legacyaux_btb

advertising/B2_Asian Lifestyle Content_legacyaux_im0

advertising/B2_Automotive Interest 2.5.15_legacyaux_jqs

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/HBO KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Ford/Lincoln KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Bank of America KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Discover Card KWs – INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Ronald McDonald House KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Diageo - Johnnie Walker KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/1st: Keywords+IPTC: Arts/Entertainment/Documentaries

client-blocklists/Client List: Optum KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/ExxonMobil 03312021 KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Showtime KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Apple TV+ KW – INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client Neg KW List: Omega KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Cancer_legacyaux_7f3

advertising/B2_Celebrity_legacyaux_sg5

client-blocklists/PMI KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/GEICO KWs - INCLUDES ANY_4.26.21

client-blocklists/Client List: Eli Lily KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Culture and Tradition_legacyaux_kfx

client-blocklists/Client List: Purina KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Citrix Mindfulness

advertising/B2_Health and Beauty_legacyaux_3fv

client-blocklists/BP KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/National Instruments KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Lifestyle_legacyaux_ipv

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T Digital Divide  - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Music_legacyaux_yzu

client-blocklists/Samsung 2021 KWs - INCLUDE ANY

advertising/B2_Positive News_legacyaux_hlt

advertising/B2_Shopping_legacyaux_sa6

advertising/B2_Society_legacyaux_0cz

advertising/B2_Winter Weather, Sports and Attractions 11-18-14_legacyaux_jqm

client-blocklists/Client List: KPMG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Novo Nordisk KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Siemens KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Cisco KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T ALT KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Mercedes KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/FX Excludes All Disney

client-blocklists/Client List: Inpixon KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Boeing KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Aetna KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 12.23.20

client-blocklists/Client List: Google KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Philip Morris KWs - INCLUDES ANY 

client-blocklists/Capital One KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 1.4.21

client-blocklists/Bank of America Merrill Lynch KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Google PG KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Chase KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Office Depot KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: ETrade KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

prism://prism.query/obits-stream&limit=20

The Washington Post Obituaries section has Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia obituaries, appreciations and death notices as well as historical obits and celebrity obituaries.

Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.

D.C., Md. & Va.

The Washington Post offers breaking local news, weather and traffic information for the DC, Maryland and Virginia metro areas, plus information about school districts, crime, government, religion, the lottery,restaurant reviews and obituaries.

prism://prism.query/site,/entertainment&limit=20

Arts & Entertainments

The latest news on entertainments and arts from The Washington Post. Breaking news and in-depth coverage of movies, music, tv, art, theater and video games.

prism://prism.query/ap-articles-by-site-id,/entertainment&limit=3

prism://prism.query/site,/entertainment/pop-culture&limit=20

Pop Culture

Obituaries;D.C., Md. & Va.;Arts & Entertainments;Pop Culture