http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-03-28/earl-scruggs-banjo-legend-bluegrass-dies/53841194/1Country Music Hall of Famer Earl Scruggs, a singular talent of collective import, died Wednesday at a Nashville hospital. He was 88.
A quietly affable presence, Scruggs popularized a complex, three-fingered style of playing banjo that transformed the instrument, inspired nearly every banjo player who followed him and became a central element in what is now known as bluegrass music.
But Scruggs' legacy is in no way limited to or defined by bluegrass, a genre that he and partner Lester Flatt dominated as Flatt and Scruggs in the 1950s and '60s: His adaptability and open-minded approach to musicality and to collaboration made him a bridge between genres and generations.
Memory Eternal!