Francis Jackson Craig, born in Dickson, Tennessee, on Sept. 10, 1900, became a skilled pianist whose favored music was ragtime and who later wrote Vanderbilt University's fight song, "Dynamite." After leaving Vanderbilt in 1922 without graduating, he formed an orchestra for Nashville society gatherings, and in 1925 the group found a permanent home at the Hermitage Hotel, where Craig led the house orchestra for 20 years. Their music, tailored for dining, dancing and relaxation, was broadcast on WSM, including the station's first broadcast, and by 1926 his Sunday evening program was carried nationally on NBC. Craig made his first recordings for Columbia in 1925, and in 1928 he recorded and published "Red Rose," written for his wife, before going 19 years without recording again. Founded in 1946, Nashville-based Bullet Records became the city's first record label, and when Craig, still performing on WSM and at the Hermitage, was approached to rerecord "Red Rose," he instead also recorded "Near You," a new song he had co-written, at Nashville's first professional-quality recording studio, Castle Recording Laboratory, on Jan. 20, 1947. Sung in part by his trumpet player Bob Lamm, "Near You" became the first hit song recorded in Nashville after a Georgia disc jockey began playing it instead of "Red Rose," and it quickly spread nationwide. It reached No. 1 on Billboard's Honor Roll of Hits chart for 17 weeks, became one of the most successful pop records of the pre-rock 'n' roll era, and helped lay some of the groundwork for Nashville's emerging music business. Craig and Lamm then left WSM and the Hermitage Hotel to tour, and Craig's follow-up, "Beg Your Pardon," reached No. 3 on the same chart. After "Near You" left the chart in 1948, Craig continued recording until 1955 with less success, while the song later became the closing theme for Milton Berle's NBC television programs and returned to No. 1 in 1977 as a duet by George Jones and Tammy Wynette. By 1950 Craig had retired in Nashville and was appointed music librarian at WSM by his cousin Edwin Craig. In the early 1960s, he and his wife built a house near Sewanee, Tennessee. On Oct. 15, 1966, he made his final appearance at Nashville's Belle Meade Country Club, playing "Near You" and "Red Rose" on the piano, and he died in Sewanee on Nov. 19.