PASSINGS: Jack Greene, Jesus Cardenas, Stephen Citron

Jack Greene

Grand Ole Opry star sang hit 1960s tune

Jack Greene, 83, a longtime Grand Ole Opry star who earned fame with the late 1960s hit “There Goes My Everything,” died Thursday at his Nashville, Tenn., home from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, a Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman said.

The plaintive ballad showed off his deep voice, made him a star and earned him Single of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year awards from the Country Music Assn. in 1967.

The song inspired thousands “who had lost loved ones” to write him, Greene later said. “It touched a lot of people’s lives.”

His other hits, mostly in the late 1960s, included “All the Time,” “You Are My Treasure,” “Until My Dreams Come True,” “What Locks the Door” and “Statue of a Fool.”

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Greene recorded duet hits with another Opry singer, Jeannie Seely. They included “Wish I Didn’t Have to Miss You.”

Born in 1930 in Maryville, Tenn., he played bass and drums in various groups, then got his break when Ernest Tubb hired him in the early 1960s as the drummer for his band.

Jesus Cardenas

Field worker founded chain of markets

Jesus Cardenas, 73, a Mexican migrant worker who built the successful Southern California family-owned supermarket chain Cardenas Markets, died March 5, according to Forest Lawn, Covina Hills. The Rancho Cucamonga resident had cancer.

Born March 20, 1939, Cardenas came to the United States in the 1950s as a teenager from Jalisco, Mexico, under the now-discontinued braceros work program begun during World War II. The program allowed Mexican laborers to cross the border to work on U.S. fields, farms and railroads and arranged for part of their pay to be withheld and sent home.

He picked lemons, oranges and lettuce and milked cows on a dairy farm. With his wife, Luz, whom he married in 1964, he moved to a ranch in Corona and started a hog farm in the 1970s. At first, the couple sold their livestock to customers who would butcher the pigs themselves, but they later began their own retail operation selling traditional cuts of meat along with homemade chorizo sausage and Mexican-style cheeses.

They opened their first Cardenas Market, featuring meat and ethnic foods, in Ontario in 1981. The independent chain now has 26 stores in Southern California, mainly in the Inland Empire, and three in Las Vegas.

Cardenas was president and chief executive for three decades. His wife is a vice president and his four children help run the company.

--

Stephen Citron, a pianist who went on to write biographies of musicians — including “Sondheim and Lloyd-Webber: The New Musical,” “The Wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Alan Jay Lerner” and “Noel and Cole: The Sophisticates,” — died March 5 of bone cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, his family announced. He was 89.

— Los Angeles Times staff and wire reports

news.obits@latimes.com