(June 7, 1944-July 15, 1973)
Born in Lewiston, Maine
Birth name was Clarence LeBlanc
Guitarist in the Kentucky Colonels (1954-65), Nashville West (1967-68), the Byrds (1968-73), Muleskinner (1973), and the New Kentucky Colonels (1973)

He started playing at age ten with his brothers in a band called Three Little Country Boys (which later changed its name to just the Country Boys, then to the Kentucky Colonels).
Producer Jim Dickinson suggested that he and the Kentucky Colonels cover Bob Dylan's 'Mr. Tambourine Man' using electric instruments. After White was unable to get the rest of the Colonels to go along with the idea, Dickson brought the song to the Byrds instead.
He was in the middle of recording a never-finished debut album when he died.

As a member of the Country Boys, he appeared in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (1961).
Critic Thom Owens wrote that his playing with the Kentucky Colonels 'helped pioneer a new style in bluegrass; namely, he redefined the acoustic guitar as a solo instrument.'
He and fellow Byrd Gene Parsons invented the B-bender, a guitar accessory that bends the B-string to emulate the sound of a pedal steel guitar.
He died as the result of a drunk driver hitting him while he was loading equipment into his car after a show.
Gram Parsons wrote his last song, 'In My Hour of Darkness,' as a tribute to him.

Credit: C. Fishel

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