Smokey and the Bandit sidekick Jerry Reed dies at age of 71

Country guitarist, songwriter, singer and Smokey and the Bandit sidekick Jerry Reed died Monday of emphysema. He was 71. The Atlanta-born Grammy winner, who never lost his Georgia drawl, backed Elvis Presley and Waylon Jennings on guitar before emerging on his own in the late '60s. Within a decade, he had a string of radio hits such as "When You're Hot, You're Hot" and "Amos Moses" and "East Bound and Down" from the Bandit" movies, in which he played trucker Cledus "Snowman" Snow. Survivors include Reed's wife of 49 years, Priscilla Mitchell Hubbard, of the Nashville suburb of Brentwood; two daughters, Charlotte "Lottie" Stewart of Franklin, Tenn., and Seidina Hinesley of Smyrna, Tenn.; and two grandchildren.