Full Story: nytimes.com

Carl Smith, Country Music Hitmaker, Is Dead at 82

Carl Smith, the dapper singer who ranked among the most popular country hitmakers of the 1950s, died on Saturday at his home in Franklin, Tenn., just outside Nashville. He was 82.

He had recently suffered a stroke and had been in failing health, according to Keith Bilbrey, a close friend and former announcer on the Grand Ole Opry.

In 1952 Mr. Smith married June Carter, a fellow Opry member, with whom he had one child, the singer Carlene Carter. The couple divorced in 1956, after which Mr. Smith left the Grand Ole Opry to star in a touring revue sponsored by Philip Morris, the cigarette maker. Also featured on the show was the singer Goldie Hill, to whom Mr. Smith was married from 1957 until Ms. Hill’s death in 2005.