Today would have been Eddy Arnold's 90th birthday, but he died one week short of that, on May 8, at a health care facility in Franklin, Tenn., near Nashville.

If I asked who was the first country performer to win the Entertainer of the Year award from the Country Music Association, you might guess it was Mr. Arnold in 1967, but did you know that he never won a Grammy Award (even though he sold more than 85 million records) except getting a pity one for Lifetime Achievement in 2005?

Then again, Conway Twitty never won a Grammy Award, and both Barbara Mandrell and Elvis Presley won only for their gospel recordings. That's why I don't put much stock in award shows.

Mr. Arnold was the first country music celebrity to speak to me -- even though it was only two words. As a young man, I had managed to work my way into the rehearsal of Jimmy Dean's television show being taped at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in September 1965.

I was sitting alone in the middle of a long, curving wooden church pew when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man coming down my row. I turned sideways as he said, "Excuse me." I looked up to see it was Mr. Arnold.

We crossed paths several times afterward, the last in March 1996 when he and his wife, Sally, sat across the aisle from me at the funeral of Minnie Pearl. Mr. Arnold's wife died March 11. They had been married for 66 years.

"What is your secret for staying together?" I asked him in 1992 a few months after their 50th anniversary. He replied, "Fight it out, and then get back in a good humor."

"We got married in a Nashville church with just three other people present," he continued." We were so poor my wife had to borrow a friend's ring."

Mr. Arnold came to Augusta at least three times.

The first was Oct. 21, 1941, at Daniel Field with the Camel Caravan. The show starred Pee Wee King and The Golden West Cowboys featuring "Smilin' Eddie Arnold" and several other acts. His first name was misspelled many times over the years.

Mr. Arnold was back in Augusta in 1950 performing at the Miller and the Imperial theaters.

A longtime golfer, he also was in Augusta for at least one Masters Tournament.

There are many things Mr. Arnold will be remembered for but one of the best was that he never forgot his simple, farm-boy roots.

"Entertainers are nothing special," he told me in one phone conversation. "Maybe we have a talent for singing a song, but other people have talents. I wish fans would just come up and say 'hello,' before asking for an autograph. I wish they would just say, 'Hello. I'm so and so, and I just want to shake your hand.' "

He added, "I'm impressed when I find people like that. Most people just say, 'Sign here,' and treat you like a statue."

GOODBYE DOTTIE RAMBO: The gospel and country music worlds lost a light with the death of 74-year-old singer-songwriter Dottie Rambo in the wreck of her tour bus on Interstate 44 near Mount Vernon, Mo., on Mother's Day.

She performed in Augusta several times and wrote many classic gospel numbers, including We Shall Behold Him , the 1982 Gospel Music Association Song of the Year.

Don Rhodes has written about country music for 37 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.