Mickey Gilley

Mickey Leroy Gilley, born March 9, 1936, grew up in Ferriday, Louisiana, and is a well-known country music performer and songwriter. He learned to play the piano alongside his famous cousins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Lee Swaggart. In the Ferriday area, "Gilley" is pronounced as "Jilly," but after Mickey moved to Texas at age 17, the pronunciation changed.

Mickey recorded 39 Top Ten Country hits with 17 of those reaching the number one spot on the country music charts. His recordings, "Room Full of Roses" in 1974, "Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time" in 1976, and "Stand By Me" in 1980 are some of his best-known hits.

In 1971, Mickey opened the world's largest "honky-tonk", Gilley's Club in Pasedena, Texas. It served as the setting for the 1980 movie "Urban Cowboy". The club remained a busy attraction for locals and tourists until its closing in the late 1980's. In 1989, when Mickey opened a brand-new club in Branson, Missouri, he became one of the first country superstars to open his own theater there.

The thing Mickey says he loves most is "getting on stage and performing a good show for people."