Everett Lilly, who along with his brother and a neighbor formed a bluegrass band that would achieve international fame, died Tuesday at his home in Clear Creek in southern West Virginia. He was 87.
Lilly began performing professionally in 1938 with his brother Bea on Beckley radio station WJLS. The brothers later formed the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover with Stover, their neighbor and a banjo player, and performed throughout the South.
In the early 1950s, Everett Lilly played with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs for two years. The brothers and Stover, along with fiddler Tex Logan, moved to Boston in 1952 and stayed there until 1970, performing in bars and honkytonks as the Confederate Mountaineers.
The band went to Japan in 1970, performing again as the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover. They toured the country for several years, performing and promoting bluegrass music.
Stover died in 1996 and Bea Lilly in 2005.
The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2002.
Everett Lilly continued to perform until his death with his sons Daniel and Mark and several other musicians as Everett Lilly and the Lilly Mountaineers.
