![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)
Mel Tillis performing in an undated photograph.
Steve C. Mitchell/European Pressphoto Agency; thumbnail, Associated Press, 1976
Mel Tillis
Died on November 19, 2017 at age 85
Mr. Tillis earned a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame and a National Medal of Arts as a singer and writer of enduring songs like “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” and was equally known for the stutter he employed to humorous and self-deprecating effect onstage.
Notable Deaths 2017
Remembering Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty and many others who died this year.