1970
American country music producer Paul Cohen died age 61. He was chiefly responsible for Nashville’s emergence as the country music recording capital and the Nashville Sound and was a long-time Decca Records executive. As President of the Country Music Association (CMA), Cohen was on hand when the Country Music Hall of Fame opened in 1967. Kitty Wells, Webb Pierce, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, and Bobby Helms were among the new acts signed and produce by Cohen. In an unprecedented gesture, Nashville’s Music Row offices closed for a memorial service a week later (April 7), but the lasting testimony to his memory and importance came with his posthumous election to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976.