Charley Frank Pride (March 18, 1938 – December 12, 2020) was born in Sledge, Mississippi and was a retired country singer. Pride wanted to become a professional baseball player, but while in Montana with a minor league team he started singing in clubs for extra money. Chet Atkins somehow heard one of his demo tapes and got him signed with RCA.

He was billed as “Country Charley Pride” and no pictures of him were released for the first two years of his contract with RCA. At the time, country music was still segregated, and RCA really didn’t know how to handle it. People seemed to figure it out, but didn’t really care. His records sold well and he went on to become the first African-American to perform at the Grand Old Opry.

On December 12, 2020, Pride died at the age of 86 due to complications of COVID-19.