34 years ago was a heartbreaking day for the country music community. On May 9, 1989, Keith Whitley passed away, at the height of his career, from alcohol poisoning. Whitley, married to Lorrie Morgan at the time, was only 34 years old when he passed away.
Born on July 1, 1954 in Ashland, Kentucky, Whitley showed an early gifting for music, winning his first talent contest when he was just four years old. By age 13, he was fronting his own bluegrass band. In high school, he and fellow Kentucky native Ricky Skaggs formed the group, Lonesome Mountain Boys, playing mostly Stanley Brothers music.
In 1983, Whitley relocated to Nashville to begin his solo career, His debut L.A. to Miami album came out in 1985, on RCA Records. The record included a few Top 10 hits, but it wasn’t until his sophomore Don’t Close Your Eyes, out in 1988, that Whitley became a mainstay at the top of the charts. The project’s title track, “When You Say Nothing At All,” and “I’m No Stranger to the Rain,” all became No. 1 hits for Whitley.
The singer had two more chart-topping singles, “I Wonder Do You Think of Me” (which was the title track of his third album), and “It Ain’t Nothin’.” Both songs were released posthumously, with “I Wonder Do You Think of Me” released shortly after Whitley’s passing.
On the morning of May 9, Whitley had a visit by his brother-in-law, Lane Palmer, who had coffee before Palmer left, planning to reunite later to play golf and have lunch. When Palmer returned an hour later, Whitley was found unresponsive in his bed. He was taken to the hospital, where he passed away. The official cause of death was cited as acute ethanolism, or alcohol poisoning. His blood alcohol content was .477, which is five times the amount considered to be intoxicated, per the Associated Press. Cocaine and valium were also found in his system as well.
Unfortunately, Whitley had previously quit drinking when how much alcohol was negatively impacting his health, later relapsing,
″It was a matter of life and death,″ Whitley said when he was sober. ″If I hadn’t stopped drinking, I don’t think I’d be alive today. I did so many crazy things while drinking.″
The morning that Whitley passed away, he drove Morgan to the airport, giving her a hand-written note that would be his final communication with her.
“Would you like to know what I wish for you? If I could have any wish I wanted, this is my wish,” Whitley wrote (via Whiskey Riff). “That in your life which is so precious to me, may worries, troubles and problems never linger. May they only make you that much stronger and able and wise. May you rise each day with sunlight in your heart, success in your path, answers to your prayers, and that smile that I always love to see in your eyes. I love you, Keith.”
In 2022, Whitley was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, along with Jerry Lee Lewis and record label executive Joe Galante.
“I thought about this all day today, and there are no words,” Morgan said when accepting the honor on his behalf. “I’ve gone through everything that Keith would be feeling that I feel like I knew pretty well. He would feel so undeserving. That was a wonderful thing about Keith. He was so one of us. He loved all these Hall of Fame members. He was such fans of everybody, the musicians he loved, the musicians, the songwriters.”
In addition to Morgan, Whitley was survived by his son, Jesse Keith, and his daughter, Morgan, whom he adopted when he and Lorrie married.