“Everybody knows he was a wonderful man. And that’s all we can say about him,” Cadwallader told the Associated Press. “He’s going to be dearly missed.” James Thurston Nabors was born in Sylacauga, Alabama, in 1930. He started to entertain his friends when he was a kid because of bouts of asthma. Nabors graduated from the University of Alabama, and spent the early part of his show business career as an assistant film editor and singer in New York City, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and finally Hollywood. Nabors edited film for NBC during the day and sang at The Horn, night club on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica at night. He would go on to record over 28 country or light operatic albums and perform regularly in Las Vegas. He also sang the song “Back Home Again in Indiana” at the Indianapolis 500, several times. Nabors also appeared in the Burt Reynolds vehicles The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Stroker Ace. Nabors got a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 1991. Carol Burnett, Loni Anderson, Phyllis Diller and Florence Henderson were at the ceremony. Nabors lived in Hawaii with his longtime partner Cadwallader, who he married in 2013 after same-sex marriage became legal in Washington. Nabors met former firefighter Cadwallader in 1975.
