Longtime Nashville music publicist and nonprofit leader Cathy Gurley died Tuesday (Jan. 20) in Nashville at age 76.
A Pittsburgh native, Gurley attended Wheeling College in West Virginia and later worked as a features writer for the Wheeling News-Register. Gurley subsequently worked at WWVA Radio and co-founded the Jamboree in the Hills Festival. During her time at WWVA, Gurley’s radio feature, “Care and Feeding of America,” earned a Robert F. Kennedy Award for excellence in journalism.
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Gurley arrived in Nashville in 1982 and worked as the director of public information at the Country Music Association (CMA), overseeing media and marketing events including Fan Fair and the annual CMA Awards show. Gurley also edited the CMA’s magazine, CMA Close-Up.
In 1985, Gurley launched the full-service media, marketing and promotion company Gurley & Co., representing artists including Lynn Anderson, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Marty Stuart and Tanya Tucker, in addition to the Capitol/Liberty rosters under Jimmy Bowen‘s leadership.
Gurley was also an essential part of many nonprofits, including T.J. Martell’s Country in the Rockies (benefitting the Frances Preston Laboratories at Vanderbilt), as well as the Nashville Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Sexual Offender Treatment board, the Domestic Death Review board, Friends of Warner Park, ACES of Nashville and the McNeilly Center for Children. She became the CEO of You Have the Power in 2012, leading the organization created by former Tennessee First Lady Andrea Conte, which focused on aiding those impacted by violent crimes. It was through her work at You Have The Power that Gurley helped start Voices From the Garden, a children’s memorial garden located in Nashville’s Centennial Park.
Gurley was also a member of Leadership Music’s Class of 2001 and served as an adjunct instructor at both Belmont University and Middle Tennessee State University. Gurley was inducted into the SOURCE Hall of Fame in 2018.
Gurley is survived by her daughter, Meagan Sullivan, five grandchildren, four siblings and 11 nieces and nephews. Services for Gurley will be held this spring at Christ the King Church, located on Belmont Blvd. in Nashville. Donations can be made to She Should Run or the Children’s Memory Garden at Centennial Park.
