After iconic musician Charlie Daniels passed on July 6, his son, Charlie Daniels Jr., says the hospital staff honored his father in a special way. In a new post on his father’s website, Daniels Jr. says the staff wanted to do a Patriots Honor Walk for the late Country Music Hall of Fame member.
Daniels Jr. writes on the website about the honorary gesture. “The Patriots Honor Walk is military-themed, and it is the civilian equivalent to the military Honor Walk as the hospital staff lines the hallways as the recently deceased is taken out of the doors,” he writes.
Before accepting the gesture, Daniels Jr. says, “I wanted to stress to the hospital staff, that although dad loved our military, he did not serve.” The singer, most known for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” proudly supported the military. With his business manager, Daniels set up a foundation to benefit veterans called The Journey Home Project.
Daniels Jr. continued by writing: “So, that being said, I wanted to let the staff know that information, and they said the Patriots Honor Walk is similar, but for people who were passionate supporters of our country, and our military. One of the nurses on staff who served in the Navy brought an American flag and she draped it over my dad’s body, and the hospital chaplain handed out cards with a beautiful prayer he had written for us.”
Charlie Daniels Jr. Shares a Message to the Hospital Staff
In the post, Daniels Jr. also mentioned his appreciation for the hospital staff. “I also wanted to say thank you to the ER staff at Summit Medical Center,” he writes. “The staff was kind, understanding and went out of the way to take care of dad, and my mom and me. You have no idea how much that meant to us.”
Fans likely remember Daniels as an accomplished multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. Over the course of his celebrated career, Daniels released 30 studio albums. While “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” goes down as Daniels’s biggest hit, he released a number of highly successful singles. Some of those hit songs include “In America,” “The Legend of Wooley Swamp,” and “Still in Saigon.”
During an interview with The Oklahoman in 2019, Daniels spoke about the success of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia. “It is fun to play and one of the reasons it’s fun to play is because that’s the one everybody wants to hear,” he said. “You know when you get to that every night it’s gonna be a song everybody’s gonna recognize and everybody’s gonna get into. So, it’s definitely a high point of the night. We close with that. There’s nothing we have to follow it with. …We’ve climbed all the heights we can, it’s time to leave.”
Charlie Daniels leaves behind his wife, Hazel, and son, Charlie Daniels Jr.
[H/T CharlieDaniels.com]
