Skaggs Voted Entertainer of Year

--A misty-eyed Ricky Skaggs, who dropped out of high school in the 12th grade to play music full time, won the prestigious entertainer of the year award from the Country Music Assn. Skaggs received the honor, and the award for top instrumental group for his band, during the nationally televised CMA awards show at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. His award broke a three-year hold on the top honor by Alabama, a four-piece band that sought an unprecedented fourth straight selection. George Strait, a former foreman of a Texas cattle ranch, won male vocalist of the year and album of the year for “Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind.” The mother-daughter duo, the Judds, won single of the year for “Why Not Me?” and vocal group of the year. Anne Murray and Dave Loggins won the vocal duo of the year award and Reba McEntire was voted female vocalist of the year for the second straight time. Banjoist Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt, who were bluegrass pioneers, became the 43rd and 44th members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Flatt died in 1979.

--Nine-year-old Rhett Murdaugh had raised his pet goat, Woodrow, since he was 3 weeks old, but he wanted to help the county get a new fairground, so he gave up Woodrow for a fund-raising auction. “I hope the butcher man don’t get him,” he said as he led Woodrow to the McAlester Union Stockyards’ auction ring in McAlester, Okla., earlier this month. But that’s what almost happened. The bid started at $2 and quickly rose to a top of $4,750 from Dale Moore, manager of Bob’s Discount Foods. The realization that the store had a meat butchering department sent Rhett into tears, as he draped his arms around Woodrow’s neck. It also was too much for Moore, who returned Woodrow to Rhett--and let his bid stand. “I could hardly believe it,” the boy said later. “I was really surprised. I mean, I never expected Woodrow back, but I’m sure glad I got him back.” Rhett “wanted a better fairgrounds, even though I really didn’t want to sell Woodrow,” he told the Tulsa World. But before Woodrow goes back to the Murdaugh farm for good, Moore plans to have him tethered in front of his store for a day so children can pet him.

--Actress Katharine Hepburn, who at 75 is often questioned about old age, says the secret to her youthful glow and inner happiness is vitality. “Lack of vitality is a terrible lack,” she wrote in the Oct. 19 issue of TV Guide magazine. “It can mean that you just don’t try.” Four-time Academy Award winning actress Hepburn said she loves getting down on her hands and knees and communing with the earth. “My hands are strong. I can sift and get out the old crab-grass roots and dump in the topsoil and humus and peat and manure, and mix them with the sand. I can crawl through the flower bed, weed. . . . Limited vitality, certainly, but better than nothing.”