Country music legend George Jones, a Country Music Hall of Famer, Grand Ole Opry member, and Kennedy Center Honoree, died Friday, April 26, 2013 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He was hospitalized April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure. The untimely news was confirmed by his publicist, and picked up heavily by the Associated Press and Rolling Stone.

Jones, born on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, was heavily regarded as one of the most important and influential singers of country, with a long list of No. 1 country hits including “The Grand Tour,” “Walk Through This World With Me,” “Tender Years” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” along with “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” his memorable 1981 duet with Barbra Mandrell.

By the time “Golden Ring” and “Near You” hit in 1976, Jones and Wynette were divorced, and Jones was battling personal demons. His solo career cooled until 1980, when he recorded “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” a ballad penned by Curly Putman and Bobby Braddock that helped Jones win Country Music Association prizes for best male vocal and top single. “He Stopped Loving Her Today” revived a flagging career, and Jones won the CMA’s top male vocalist award in 1980 and 1981. He also earned a Grammy for best male country vocal performance.

In 1983, Jones married the former Nancy Ford Sepulvado. The union, he repeatedly said, began his rehabilitation from drugs and alcohol and prolonged his life. He signed with MCA Records in 1990 and began a successful run, and he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992. His guest vocal on Patty Loveless’ “You Don’t Seem To Miss Me” won a CMA award for top vocal event in 1998, and it became his final Top 20 country hit.

In 1999, Jones nearly died in a car wreck, but he recovered and resumed touring and recording. He remained a force in music until his death, playing hundreds of shows in the new century and collecting the nation’s highest arts award, the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement, in 2008.

The reaction to Jones’s passing along with accolades of his great achievement and friendship poured out across the Internet through a frenzy of press statements and ready-to-print quotes.

“I believe if you ask any singer who was the greatest country music singer of all time, they would say ‘George Jones’,” country legend Barbara Mandrell wrote in a press statement. “He was without question and by far the best! I first met and worked with him when I was thirteen years old; I am so very grateful that he was my friend.”

Country singer Mark Chesnutt also reacted to Jones’s passing: “I have no words to express my admiration and love for George Jones. To say he was my ‘hero’ does not do justice to the lifetime impression he made on me, both personally and professionally.  George Jones is the foundation of country music and he’s the reason I wanted to perform.”

“Country music lost an icon today and I have lost a dear and beloved friend,” country singer Lorrie Morgan, daughter of country legend  George Morgan, wrote. “With tear-filled eyes, I’m reminiscing this morning about all that I learned from and loved about George Jones.  He was part of my ‘country music education;’ he made country music history and, in my opinion, George Jones is a song’s best friend.”

In the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Encylopedia of Country Music, author Bob Allen wrote that “he [was] the undisputed successor of earlier natural geniuses such as Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell.”

Jones is survived by his loving wife Nancy, his sister Helen Scroggins, and by his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.