NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Earl Scruggs' wife has died.As his manager, Louise Scruggs helped her banjo-playing husband expand the audience for bluegrass and country music. Dwight Yoakam calls her "one of the legendary icons behind the scenes of country music." Yoakam says she may not have taken "the curtain calls" but many people wouldn't have heard of her husband without her work. They married in 1948, two years after they met while he was performing with Bill Monroe at the Grand Ole Opry. She was in the audience. He then formed Flatt and Scruggs with guitarist and singer Lester Flatt. She almost rejected the chance for Flatt and Scruggs to record the theme for "The Beverly Hillbillies." She feared the series would stereotype rural Southerners. After seeing a pilot, she gave the thumbs-up and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" became one of the group's best-known songs. Louise Scruggs was 78. Her family says she died yesterday.
Louise Scruggs, wife and manager of banjo star Earl Scruggs, dead at 78
Earl Scruggs' wife has died.
