Jim McCoy, the owner of the Troubadour Restaurant and Lounge on Highland Ridge near Berkeley Springs, West Virginia has died. He was 87.
The Troubadour was named after McCoy’s friend, the Texas Troubadour — the late Ernest Tubb.
McCoy started his career in music in the 1950s when he hosted a half hour country music radio show every Saturday on WINC in Winchester, Virginia.
McCoy toured the country with his own band — Jim McCoy and the Melody Playboys — and recorded with a major Nashville label.
A young Patsy Cline got her start on McCoy’s WINC radio show.
“Patsy Cline lived in Winchester, not too far from the radio station,” McCoy told This Week in Morgan County in an interview earlier this year. “We were using one microphone. Patsy was 14 years old. She comes into the radio station. I didn’t talk her that day. But the next Saturday she was there. And she said — I want to sing. I don’t want no money. I just want to sing. We hadn’t rehearsed. I said — well, we need to rehearse. When I heard her sing, I will never forget it. I knew she was going to be a big one. She was a great singer at 14. People don’t know it but she played a little piano too.”
The Troubadour — dubbed by Danish television as the last honky tonk in America — is home to a yearly Patsy Cline festival.
McCoy had boundless energy and a dry sense of humor — penning such classic country songs as “Divorce Me Like a Woman, Leave Me Like a Man,” “If the Truth is Gonna Hurt Just Lie to Me,” and “Momma Pinch a Penny While Daddy Throws a Dollar Away.”
McCoy and his doctor — Matt Hahn — released those songs and others at a CD release party in 2008 at the Troubadour.
At that party, McCoy brought the house down when he sang Ernest Tubb’s classic — Waltz Across Texas.
A biography by John Douglas of McCoy titled Joltin’ Jim: Jim McCoy’s Life in Country Music was published in 2007.
In it, Charlie Dick, Patsy Cline’s husband and McCoy’s good friend, says that he “really became close friends with Jim after Patsy died. Jim was even a pall bearer at Patsy’s funeral.”
“Only after getting to know him more personally did I realize just how much country music meant to him and how much Jim meant to country music. He was always willing to help local talents, whether it was having them appear with him at shows, or getting them connected to the music business in Nashville. I am sure there are many people who can thank Jim for all the help he gave them in their careers.”
“One of Jim’s idols was Ernest Tubb, The Texas Troubadour. Jim was honored to become a friend of Ernest’s. When Jim opened his country music venue in West Virginia, he named it “The Troubadour” in honor of his friend. Even today it is still a hot spot. Jim operates The Troubadour with the help of his lovely wife, Bertha. Or does Bertha operate it, with the help of Jim?”
“Jim became my close friend in the ’60s, when I really needed a close friend, and I am proud to call him my friend to this day.”