guitarist in the show's band. Buddy Emmons, another pedal-steel guitar virtuoso, began with Tubb in fall of 1957 and lasted through the early 1960s. Emmons went on to create a steel-guitar manufacturing company that bears his name. Buddy Charleton, one of the most accomplished pedal-steel guitarists known, joined Ernest in spring 1962 and continued to fall of 1973. Buddy Charleton and Leon Rhodes formed a nucleus for the Texas Troubadours that would be unsurpassed. Beginning in the fall of 1965, he hosted a half-hour TV program, The Ernest Tubb Show, which aired in first-run syndication for three years. That same year, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in 1970, Tubb was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Later years Tubb inspired some of the most devoted fans of any country artist — and his fans followed him throughout his career, long after the chart hits dried up. He remained, as did most of his peers, a fixture at the Grand Ole Opry, where he continued to appear. He continued to host his Midnite Jamboree radio program a few blocks away from the Opry at his record shop. A notable release in 1979, The Legend and the Legacy, paired Tubb with a who's who of country singers on the Cachet Records label, to which Tubb was connected financially. This long out-of-print duets album was re-released in 1999 as a CD on the First Generations label, on the 20th anniversary of its release, and it quickly went out of print again. In 1980, he appeared as himself in Loretta Lynn's autobiographical film, Coal Miner's Daughter with Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl. His singing voice remained intact until late in life, when he fell ill with emphysema. Even so, he continued to make over 200 personal appearances a year, carrying an oxygen tank on his bus. After each performance, he would shake hands and sign autographs with every fan who wanted to stay. Health problems finally halted his performances in 1982. Death On August 15, 1982, he made his final appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. He died on September 6, 1984, at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville from emphysema. He is buried in Nashville's Hermitage Memorial Gardens. Legacy Tubb was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and he ranked number 21 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in