Services held for Porter Wagoner

Dolly Parton led an all-star choir in a rendition of “I Saw the Light” in tribute to her long-ago mentor Porter Wagoner at the public funeral service for him Thursday on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, the organization of which he’d been an active member and high-profile spokesman for more than 50 years.

Among nearly three dozen of Wagoner’s friends and peers who joined Parton in the culmination of the service on the gospel standard were Garth Brooks, George Jones, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Martina McBride, Ricky Skaggs, Little Jimmie Dickens and Del McCoury.

Wagoner, who launched Parton’s career when he hired her in 1967 for his long-running “The Porter Wagoner Show” syndicated TV series, died Sunday at age 80 barely a week after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He was scheduled to be buried Thursday in Nashville.

-- Randy Lewis