Country singer Tommy Overstreet dies at 79; had hits in 1970s

Singer Tommy Overstreet, who had more than 25 recordings that made it on to the Billboard country music chart, died Monday at home in Hillsboro, Ore., according to the Associated Press. He was 79.

His wife, Diane, said he suffered from heart and lung disease.

Overstreet’s biggest hit was “Ann (Don’t Go Runnin),” which made it to the No. 2 spot on the chart in 1972. His other high-ranking charted songs that decade included “Heaven is My Woman’s Love” and “(Jeannie Marie) You Were a Lady.”

He was born on Sept. 10, 1937 in Oklahoma City. His cousin was pop crooner Gene Austin, a major star of the 1920s with recordings such as “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “My Blue Heaven.” Overstreet referred to the much-older Austin as his uncle.

“My uncle told me that you had to sing from the heart and you had to have songs that touched and spoke to other people’s hearts,” Overstreet told Billboard in 2014.

It was also Austin who convinced Overstreet to turn to country music, because he felt that market was ready to explode. Overstreet found the country sound to his liking. “Country music, to me, relates to everyone and everything,” he said in an Idaho Falls Post Register interview in 2006. “I call it ‘the finger on the pulse of a nation.’”

Overstreet’s last charted song was “Next to You” in 1986. He continued to tour into the 2000s.

--From Times staff reports