Huntingdon, Tenn.–Carl Mann, known as the “Last Son of Sun”, passed away Wednesday at Jackson Madison County General Hospital. He was 78.
Mann was from rural Huntingdon and was one of the last artists that Sam Phillips recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis.
Sam Phillips signed Mann to a three-year contract and as a teenager, he hit the national charts with a rockabilly version of Nat King Cole’s “Mona Lisa” in 1959. He performed and made records for several decades.
Mann came out of retirement in 2005, performing on the local Huntingdon Hayride radio show in his hometown. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson, in 2006.
In May 2011, a book on his life and music career called The Last Son of Sun was released.
Chase Funeral Home in Huntingdon has charge of arrangements, which were incomplete this morning.
