King, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame
                  since 1974, had been hospitalized since suffering a
                  severe heart attack on Feb. 28.

                  "Pee Wee's another one I'm gonna miss sorely," said
                  Opry stalwart Stonewall Jackson, a longtime friend
                  and touring partner of King's.

                  "That's about the only down side of being in this
                  business, when you are on the road like you are,
                  together for years and years with these people, they
                  become like your family. It hurts just like losing a
                  family member."

                  According to The Encyclopedia of Country Music,
                  King wrote or co-wrote more than 400 songs. And
                  his band, the Golden West Cowboys, set new
                  professional standards in dress and musicianship for
                  the then largely amateur Opry cast, which he joined
                  in 1937.

                  "Pee Wee is best known as a writer, but this guy was
                  also a real innovator," said Kyle Young, director of
                  the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

                  "To walk into the Opry in the late '30s and see the
                  elaborate costumes and stage show and hear what
                  was probably odd instrumentation at the time must
                  have been a real eye-opener."

                  King wrote Tennessee Waltz with his fellow band
                  member Redd Stewart in 1947. Although the Golden
                  West Cowboys' recording of the song did well, a
                  1950 version by Patti Page did even better, selling
                  65 million copies. It became an official state song of
                  Tennessee in 1965.

                  King and Stewart said in interviews through the years
                  that Tennessee Waltz was written on an unfolded
                  matchbox as they were riding in Stewart's truck.

                  Jackson, who said he toured with King and Stewart
                  for 10 years, recalled that both were jokesters as
                 well as writers.

                  "They were quite a team. They were a lot of fun to
                  be around. They always had a lot of jokin' and
                  kidding. It makes all those miles come a lot easier."

                  In addition to Waltz, King's Slow Poke was a No. 1
                  pop hit for 14 weeks in 1951.

                  The Encyclopedia credits King with more than 20
                  albums and more than 157 singles, most of them
                  released during his 17-year tenure with RCA Victor.

                  "He was a longtime board member of the Country
                  Music Foundation as well as a member of the hall,"
                  Young said.

                  "The way we'll remember Pee Wee around here is he
                  came religiously to our board meetings, and I
                  remember him sitting around before our board
                  meetings and here was this real sharp-witted guy ...
                  very, very passionate.

                  "I just loved the guy."

                  Fellow Hall-of-Famer Eddy Arnold told the
                  Associated Press: "I had a great admiration for him. I
                  worked for him at one time (in the 1940s) ... and I
                  will miss him greatly. I learned a lot about
                  showmanship from him.

                  "He was a good friend."

                  King's manager and father-in-law, J.L. Frank,
                  brought the 5-foot-6 accordion player and his band
                  to the attention of radio station WSM's general
                  manager, Harry Stone, who hired the act for the
                  Grand Ole Opry.

                  King began an Opry tradition that remains to this day
                  when he outfitted his band in dazzling Western
                  costumes designed by Hollywood tailor Nudie.

                  Born Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski in Abrams,
                  Wis., King chose his professional surname from one
                  of his favorite performers, Wayne King, then picked
                  up the nickname "Pee Wee" from his manager.

                  Kuczynski liked the combination so well that he had
                  his name legally changed to Frank "Pee Wee" King.

                  The popularity of the Golden West Cowboys rose
                  after they made appearances on the WLS Barn
                  Dance in Chicago and singer-actor Gene Autry's
                  Melody Ranch show on CBS.

                  On the invitation of Autry's sidekick, Smiley Burnett,
                  they went to Hollywood and were in several of
                  Autry's movies, as well as Westerns with Charles
                  Starret, the Durango Kid and Johnny Mack Brown.

                  His four screen credits include Gold Mine in the Sky
                  with Autry, Flame of the West with Brown, Ridin'
                  the Outlaw Trail and The Rough, Tough West.
                  King and the band were written into the screenplays
                  so they could perform the smooth, Western swing
                  music that was their trademark.

                  The Golden West Cowboys had their own show on
                  WAVE-TV in Louisville during the late 1940s. He
                  and the band went on to regional and national TV
                  offerings through the '50s and '60s, with broadcasts
                  coming out of Cincinnati, Cleveland and Chicago.
                  The Pee Wee King Show had a six-year run on
                  ABC television.