SAD NEWS RETURNS TO OUR INDUSTRY

SAD NEWS RETURNS TO OUR INDUSTRY

PATSI BALE COX DEAD AT 66

Author and Journalist Patsi Bale Cox Dead at 66

Co-wrote Memoirs with Tanya Tucker, Loretta Lynn, Wynonna, Ralph Emery, Others

Author and entertainment journalist Patsi Bale Cox died of emphysema Saturday (Nov. 5) at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville. 

A native of Sublette, Kansas, Cox graduated from Fort Hayes State University and went on to edit such regional publications as Colorado Woman Magazine and Rocky Mountain Country.  She moved to Nashville in 1983 and, in addition to other freelance projects, edited publications for PolyGram and Capitol Records.

From the 1990s onward, Cox became one of the most popular “as told through” voices in entertainment journalism.  Her two books with disc jockey, TV host and now Country Music Hall of Fame member Ralph Emery—50 Years Down A Country Road and The View From Nashville—were both bestsellers.

Her other celebrity biographies included Nickel Dreams with Tanya Tucker, Still Woman Enough with Loretta Lynn, Coming Home To Myself with Wynonna, Halfway To Paradise with Tony Orlando, Between A Heart And A Rock Place with Pat Benatar, The Three Of Us: Growing Up With Tammy And George with Georgette Jones and My Life with Jenny Jones.

In 2009, Cox wrote a book describing and appraising Garth Brooks’ impact on country music called The Garth Factor: The Career Behind Country’s Big Boom.

Under the pseudonym G. F. Bale, Cox co-wrote with her sister, Gladys Bale Wellbrock, the mysteries If Thoughts Could Kill and Cry, Baby, Cry.

She was working on a memoir with Kenny Rogers at the time of her death.

Cox is survived by daughter Tracy Cox Nath and son Adam Cox.  There are not funeral arrangements at this time.

Obit written by Edward Morris