Jimmy Fortune

Born in 1955 and raised in Nelson County, Virginia, Jimmy Fortune spent 21 years singing tenor for The Statler Brothers, and he wrote several of the group's number-one songs, including "Elizabeth". Before joining them he had attended Nelson County High School in Lovingston.

Fortune joined the Statler Brothers in 1982 after Lew DeWitt, the original tenor, heard him sing at a local ski resort and asked him to audition. He started as a temporary replacement and stayed when DeWitt left because of ill health. Songs including "Too Much on My Heart" and "My Only Love" were number ones, while "More Than a Name on a Wall" was a top-10 country hit. After the group disbanded in 2002 he continued as a solo artist, and his 2015 album Hits & Hymns, produced by Ben Isaacs, reached the Top Ten of Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. In 2020 he formed Brothers of the Heart with Bradley Walker, Ben Isaacs and Mike Rogers, and in 2023 a bronze statue of him was unveiled in Nelson County.