Jimmie Osborne, a native of Winchester, Ky., sang country music over radio stations in Lexington, Shreveport, Nashville and Louisville during a career that started when he was 15 years old. He was reported to be the highest-paid performer in the radio and television field in Louisville at one time. As a recording artist, Osborne was best known for two hits--"My Heart Echoes", his first record and one that hit the best seller list in the country music field in 1947, and a few years later, "The Death of Kathy Fiscus", which sold 1,000,000 copies. Osborne wrote the song while working on radio station WLEX in Lexington. He gave half the royalties to a memorial fund for the little California girl who fell in a well and died. Like many other performers in the country and folk music business, Osborne played many benefits--for fellow performers down on their luck and for such causes as the March of Dimes. Those who worked with him said Osborne's success was based on his "infectious personality" rather than on his singing voice, which was not a notable one. His home town of Winchester never forgot him and once gave him a home-coming day. The key to the city was handed to Osborne by the Mayor, Dr. John A. Snowden, who was the physician who brought Osborne into this world. He is still remembered in Winchester as the youngster who began "picking and singin" with a guitar that cost $4 and a "get-up" that featured the oldest overalls he could find and a floppy black hat. On Dec 26, 1957, Jimmie Osborne took his own life. He was 34 years old. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.