October 29, 2007

Country Legend Porter Wagoner Dies at 80

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mojo-photo-wagoner.jpgCountry music legend Porter Wagoner died yesterday in Nashville after a brief battle with lung cancer. While his string of hits in the ’60s might not be immediately familiar to contemporary audiences, Wagoner’s trademark flashy rhinestone suits made him a symbolic country music figure, and his hand in launching Dolly Parton’s career proved his own eye for talent.

Wagoner signed to RCA in 1955 and had a syndicated TV show in the ’60s and ’70s. He hired a 21-year-old Parton as a duet partner in 1967, and the two won the Country Music Association’s “Duo of the Year” award in 1970 and 1971. Wagoner’s career petered out in the ’80s, and he only returned to the studio this year, recording an album for alternative Los Angeles label Anti-. His last show was this summer where he opened for the White Stripes at Madison Square Garden.

MP3: Porter Wagoner – “Committed to Parkview” (from Wagonmaster, 2007)

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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