Oh, I will cry today, many tears, another tradition in my lifetime is saying goodbye. Since his first one, I have religiously stood, watched and listened to Jim Nabors sing this song. My family is from Indiana, the 500 has been a part of my life for all my years. I will die, a little bit today, millions of others will be crying with me, I am sure.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jim Nabors is back home again in Indiana, this time to say farewell.
The actor whose bumbling Gomer Pyle character endeared Nabors to an entire generation, and whose rich baritone has provided the soundtrack for the Indianapolis 500 for more than four decades, will perform "Back Home Again in Indiana" on Sunday for the last time.
"I'll be honest with you, I didn't want to stay too long at the fair," the 83-year-old Nabors said with a hearty chuckle. "Everyone has been so incredible to me so many years. The first time I was here was 1972, so I guess most people have grown up with me."
Indeed, millions of race fans have come to know Nabors not for his character on "The Andy Griffith Show" and its spinoff, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C," but for his Memorial Day weekend tradition.
"To many Indianapolis 500 fans the pre-race pageantry is as important as the race itself," Indianapolis Motor Speedway president J. Douglas Boles said this week, "especially as the lead-up reaches its highest point with Jim Nabors singing 'Back Home Again in Indiana' and Mari Hulman-George giving the command to start engines."
