Mindy McCready remembered by local DJ - WFLA-TV Newschannel 8

Mindy McCready remembered by local DJ

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The music world is mourning the death of country singer Mindy McCready.  Police found her dead at her Arkansas home Sunday night after an apparent suicide.  The Florida native rose to the top early in her career.  In the past decade, McCready had lived a difficult life.

But a local DJ watched McCready's career from the very beginning.  In the Mid-90s, Country Music singer Mindy McCready reached stardom at breakneck speed.  The Fort Myers native went to Nashville when she was only a teenager and quickly scored some huge hits.  But then as the years went on, her notoriety took a different turn- with failed relationships, and struggles with drug addiction.

Then on Sunday night she was found dead on her porch, after apparently taking her own life just weeks after the death of her boyfriend, David Wilson.  McCready left behind two children, the youngest is not even a year old.  They were both put into foster care earlier this month after she entered rehab.  McCready's former boyfriend, Billy McKnight, was saddened, but not surprised by the news.

McKnight said, "As sad as it is, it didn't come as a shock. She's been battling demons for so long."

But before the addictions, and before the breakups, a teenage McCready spent time on the radio in Tampa Bay.  Local country music DJ Dave McKay met McCready when she was a brand new artist. He recalled how friendly and talented she was.

McKay said, "She was the karaoke queen of Fort Myers at the time, with that one cassette in her hand, saying 'mom, give me one year in Nashville, and I'm gonna get a deal, a record deal."  But McKay says along with her success, she developed an attitude, later lost her record deal and control of her life.

"A lot of artists that I know of that are successful are the ones that are very humbled by it. She was overly confident with it, and I think that hurt her. That hurt her," said McKay.

The girl McKay first met is very different from the woman she became. He feels it's a tragic end to a sad downfall.

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