American Iconic Grammy-nominated country and pop singer, Johnny Tillotson died at 86 on Tuesday (April 1).
The star’s wife, Nancy, announced the news of his passing via post on Facebook. “It is with a broken heart that I write to let you know that the sweetest, kindest man I ever met Johnny Tillotson, left earth for Heaven yesterday,” she wrote alongside a sweet photo of the duo laughing together. “He was my best beloved, Champion of my realm, Knight of my heart. Someone said that sometimes right in the middle of an ordinary life you get a fairy tale. The day I met him I got mine. He was funny, generous and kind. A gentleman through and through. He loved and was grateful to his fans, as he once said, they made every dream I ever had come true. Once again on his behalf I say thank you for that.”
She added, “Johnny will be missed every single day for the rest of my life. He was simply the best. With all the love I have in my heart for a wonderful man gone too soon from this world.”
Tillotson was the son of Doris and Jack Tillotson, who owned a small service station on the corner of 6th and Pearl in Jacksonville, Florida, and acted as the station’s mechanic. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop and country charts, including “Poetry in Motion”, the self-penned “It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'”, “Talk Back Trembling Lips”, and “Without You”.
Johnny Tillotson, Iconic Pop Singer, Died at 86
