Harold "Hal" Harris, 71, a retired radio announcer, died of cancer Saturday at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center. Services are 11 a.m. Monday at Lakewood Memorial Funeral Home with burial in Lakewood South. Mr. Harris was a native of rural south Alabama and was raised there near Andalusia and Opp. He did not attend college, opting to make a career out of his hobby, guitar playing. For about 20 years, Mr. Harris worked as a professional musician and radio announcer in Florida, Alabama, California, and Texas. In the 1950's, he was a staff musician for a recording studio in Houston, Texas. There, he worked with many musicians, including George Jones and Jape Richardson, known as the Big Bopper. Before Elvis Presley's career took off, Mr. Harris booked him to play for the studio for $150 a day. Mr. Harris eventually formed his own band in Alabama and played nightclubs around the state. In 1967 he moved to Jackson and started playing other people's music as a deejay and announcer at WJXN. A few years later, the radio station changed from a country music format to gospel. "About that time, he was saved by Jesus Christ," said his wife, Mary Harris. "Then he started writing gospel songs and recorded several albums, which he wrote the music and lyrics and sang for. We're playing a couple of these songs at his funeral." According to her, his becoming a Christian had as much to with what he didn't do as with what he did. "He stopped playing in the nightclubs entirely," Harris said. Yet she remembers that some things about him never changed. "He was always so kind and gentle, even before he became a Christian," she said. "He loved people, especially young people," she said. "He was 71, but he was young at heart. If he had never gotten cancer, he would never have been too old." Other survivors include: sons, Ted Harris of Marietta, Ga., and Hal Harris Jr. of Austin, Texas; daughters, Sherry Pettus of Pasadena, Texas, Sandra Frank of Friendswood, Texas, and Cindy Burnham of Jackson; brothers, Brooks Harris of Jackson and Billy Harris of Pearl; sister, Inez Thompson of Kingsland, Texas; and 10 grandchildren.

--- Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), Sun, 12 Jan 1992, P. 18.