New Delhi, June 14 -- Bill Cody, whose mid-Tennessee baritone introduced more than 30 years of mornings on WSM Nashville and called the Grand Ole Opry through some of Music City's biggest nights, died Tuesday, June 9, at age 67, his family said. He had been hospitalized for several weeks with kidney and heart failure.

Cody's daughter Hannah confirmed the death in a statement posted Friday after a week in which Nashville's radio and recording community had been preparing for the outcome. "He gave 50 years to the audience," she wrote. "Coffee, Country, and Cody is closing time." Rolling Stone, which broke the news to a national audience, reported that Cody's family asked that donations go to the National Kidney Foundation in lieu of flower...