RIP Earl Neal............

[Jerry Hayes]

My old buddy Earl Neal passed away the night before last from complications of a stroke. Earl had went into the hopital for a knee operation and suffered a mild stroke during the procedure. Later that evening he suffered a major stroke which left him paralyzed on the right side and unable to speak. I visited him in the ICU unit and they thought he wouldn't make it but he did get better and was moved to a regular room and later to a convalescent center for rehabilitation and therapy on both his knee and the stroke symptoms. I just visited him earlier that day and they had him sitting up in the hallway so he could check out the women and he was trying to speak and getting a few words out here and there. He was smiling and seemed to be getting better. Later that night he passed on. Earl was one if the finest vocalists you ever heard on the old Ray Price shuffle type tunes and loved Hank Thompson as well and sang the fire out of everything. He'd just bought a bass and amp from me and was in the process of taking lessons to learn the instrument. He came from a musical family as his brother Jack Neal was the bass player for a famous local group of the past, Gene Vincent & the Bluecaps. He left his lovely wife Patsy, children and many friends in the local musical community. He was around 74 years old at his passing but looked twenty years younger......JH in Va.