Country music legend Don Williams dies at 78

Don Williams an American country singer and songwriter has died after a short illness at his home in Alabama at age 78.

This was announced in a press release from the singer’s PR team confirms his death, saying that funeral arrangements are pending.

Williams was born May 27, 1939 in Floydada, Texas, growing up in nearby Portland. Music had always been close to his heart, as he entered his first talent contest — and won — at the age of three.

His prize was a brand new alarm clock. Williams played in a band with several friends during his teenage years and started a family not too long after graduating high school, marrying his wife Joy in April 1960.

The late Country Music Legend topped country charts with regularity through the ’70s, in songs characterized by an easygoing, Sunday-afternoon air and delivered with a smooth voice that walked the seam of a porch-front baritone and stage-ready tenor. The sentiment that drove much of Williams’ country was a rakish positivity, best remembered in his biggest song, 1981’s “I Believe In You”:

“Well, I don’t believe that heaven waits / For only those who congregate / I’d like to think of God as love / He’s down below / He’s up above / He’s watchin’ people everywhere / He knows who does and doesn’t care / And I’m an ordinary man / Sometimes I wonder who I am / But I believe in love.”

Born in Texas in 1939, Williams began playing the guitar as a teenager, and played in various groups around Portland, just across the bay from Corpus Christi.