Doc Stovall loved uniting people through music and poetry and encouraging them to uphold music traditions.
As a country singer, songwriter and cowboy poet Mr. Stovall's dedication to his craft earned him honors ranging from induction into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame to a resolution from the state Senate as the official Georgia cowboy balladeer.
Doc Gordon Stovall of Lithia Springs died Wednesday of injuries sustained in a car accident. He was 74. Mr. Stovall was cremated. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Whitley-Garner at Rosehaven Funeral Home in Douglasville.
Mr. Stovall was born in Abingdon, Va. He served in the U.S. Air Force and was a lifelong lover of music. In his youth, he worked and toured with the Ray Price Band. He also worked for a carpet manufacturer as a salesman.
He met his wife of 24 years, Margaret “Marty” Stovall, when he applied for a job as a carpet manager at the hotel where she worked. “He called me three times a day for an interview and my boss finally consented to the interview,” Mrs. Stovall said. He didn’t get the job, but started a friendship with her that found the two talking for hours about poetry and music. They were married in 1988.
Mr. Stovall's entry into cowboy poetry came though an invitation from another cowboy poet, Jerry Warren, to join him at a campfire gathering in the early 1990s. The two became friends, working together and later founding the Cowboy Performing Arts Society.
Mr. Stovall was a former board member of the Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville/Douglas County. He had been the entertainment and sponsorship manager for Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville since 2004.
Mr. Stovall enjoyed teaching writing and poetry to schoolchildren, Mr. Warren said. He also encouraged children of deployed military families to put their feelings down on paper.
"Family was everything to Doc Stovall," said his son, Scott Smith of Newnan. "And everyone was his family. Everyone he met, he met with a smile or a joke. He was at home onstage and performing and interacting with audiences and crowds."
Although he worked hard, he managed to balance his life and career. “It wasn’t easy but he did it,” Mrs. Stovall said. “He was constantly writing. We could be riding down the road, or someone would say something and he would jot things down. He had hundreds of pieces of paper and would sit down and write a song. It was just amazing to me. I don’t know how he put all these thoughts together.”
"His last recording was a gospel record, and that's what many people have been requesting,” Mr. Warren said. "If there is any joy to be found in his passing, it's that he got his heart right before he left this Earth. If you get right, God will take you.
"Cowboys speak of life as a circle," Mr. Warren said, “and he’s made the full circle."
Additional survivors include sons Andy Smith of Locust Grove and Jeff Stovall of Washington; daughters Stephanie Phillips of Richmond and Kelly Stovall of Raleigh; brothers Bobby B. Stovall of Raleigh and Eddie L. Stovall of Haines City, Fla.; and 15 grandchildren.
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