Curly Putman, writer of country hits, dies at 85

New York

CURLY Putman, a songwriter whose teary ballad with a twist ending, The Green, Green Grass of Home, became a worldwide hit for Tom Jones in 1967, and whose long string of country classics included D-I-V-O-R-C-E for Tammy Wynette and He Stopped Loving Her Today for George Jones, died on Sunday at his home in Lebanon, Tennessee. He was 85. The cause was congestive heart failure and kidney failure, his son, Troy, said.

Putman turned out hundreds of songs, many of them country chart-toppers, after moving to Nashville and signing with Tree Publishing in the early 1960s. He was renowned as a song doctor who could transform a promising tune into a sure thing, and although he often wrote solo, many of his greatest hits were collaborative efforts.