Buddy Starcher, Country Entertainer, 95

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Country Entertainer Buddy Starcher Dead at 95
Edward Morris 
11/08/2001 

Singer, songwriter and radio and television personality Buddy Starcher
died Friday (Nov. 2) at a nursing home in Harrisonburg, Va. He was 95.
Starcher had two national country hits, both with his own compositions:
"I’ll Still Write Your Name in the Sand," which went to No. 8 in 1949
on the 4 Star label, and "History Repeats Itself," which rose to No. 2
in 1966 on Boone Records. The latter compared the similarities between
the deaths of presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

Fans of the late Keith Whitley may recognize Starcher’s name from the
1991 RCA album Kentucky Bluebird. The opening cut of the album features
an undated segment taken from Starcher’s popular morning show on
WCHS-TV, Charleston, W. Va., in which the seven- or eight-year-old
Whitley sings "You Win Again." Starcher himself introduces Whitley.

Oby Edgar Starcher was born March 16, 1906, near Ripley, W. Va. He
learned to play guitar under the tutelage of his father, an old-time
fiddler. Starcher took his first job as a radio performer in 1928 at
station WFBR in Baltimore. He began writing his own songs -- often
about current events -- and over the next several years worked at
stations in Washington, D. C., North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa,
Pennsylvania and his home state. Red Sovine, a fellow West Virginian,
counted Starcher as one of his influences, as did such other
entertainers as Mac Wiseman, Lee Moore, Sleepy Jeffers and Smiley
Sutter.

In the early 1950s, Starcher turned from radio to television, working
at outlets in Miami and Harrisonburg. His show on WCHS-TV ran from 1960
to 1966. Following the success of "History Repeats Itself," Starcher
moved briefly to Nashville and then on to television work in Florida,
New York and Texas. He retired in 1976, intially settling near
Craigsville, W. Va., and then moving back to Harrisonburg in 1993.

Historian Ivan Tribe notes that despite Starcher’s prominence in radio,
he did not begin recording until 1946, when he affiliated with 4 Star.
Among the other labels he recorded for were Columbia, Deluxe, Starday,
Boone and Bear Family. The artist’s life story, written by Robert Cagle
and aptly titled Buddy Starcher Biography, was published in 1986.

Starcher is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary Ann, a stepson and a
sister. He was buried at Eastlawn Memorial Gardens in Harrisonburg.

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