Dusty Hill’s Widow Charleen McCrory Thanks Fans for ‘Outpouring of Love’
Charleen McCrory, the widow of ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill, has spoken publicly for the first time following her husband’s unexpected death last week.
In a message posted to the ZZ Top Facebook page on Monday, McCrory thanked Hill’s “colleagues and friends for the overwhelming outpouring of love for the Dust. It makes me hopeful he will not be forgotten.”
“He was the kindest, most gentle and caring man a woman could ever hope to find in a lifetime,” she wrote. “Many don’t believe in fairy tale marriages but Dusty and I truly lived one! We were inseparable.”
Hill had been struggling with several health problems, including a dislocated shoulder and broken hip, but was expected to make a full recovery. “He wasn’t supposed to leave me or all of you,” McCrory wrote. “That wasn’t the plan he and I had. The plan was for another round of physical therapy, with a different approach, to help his chronic bursitis. The plan was he would return to the second leg of the tour in September.”
She went on to recount the circumstances of Hill’s death, which differ from ZZ Top’s initial statement last Wednesday that he passed away in his sleep. According to McCrory, “He woke me up and we talked and as he was sweetly chatting with me he suddenly stopped and he was gone in an instant.”
“While I feel numb and lost and alone and in a million pieces,” she continued, “I know he will always be with me in my heart and soul and I will join him when the Lord calls me home to be with them. It is my hope you will always keep him in your hearts. He loved his fans and always remembered that without fans music is not heard. So, know he truly appreciated each and every one of you.”
McCrory concluded with a quote from This Is Us as a final message to Hill, and added that a funeral service would be held on August 3rd. “I would ask that you look to the heavens at noon and wish Dusty Godspeed,” she wrote.
