Glen Godsey sent this to fiddle-L: I thought you guys would like to read it:-

Received this very sad note from Mark O'Conner today for all friends of John Hartford:

A note to ask my friends to send out a good thought and prayer for one heck of a guy. John Hartford is about to pass on and is not able to communicate now. I have found out that his family is not answering any phone calls, but he is at home now from the hospital.
John Hartford has been a friend of mine since he flew to Nashville from L.A. to be on my 2nd recording back in 1975 when I was just thirteen. He was a prince and has always been there for me as a friend and a colleague.
When I was trying to figure out how to play unaccompanied performances twelve years ago, it was John who gave the words of encouragement I needed to have, while many others simply doubted the possibility of my doing it. John was also my mother's favorite person in the music business. Thought he hung the moon. Just before losing my mother to cancer almost 20 years ago, one of her last wishes was for my sister and I to drive her across the country from Seattle to see John one last time in Tennessee. It is also cancer that will take John Hartford away from us very soon as well.
A collective prayer from my mailing list towards John Hartford would be something great. The wonderful modern day minstrel one man show, the author of one of the greatest hit songs of all time, Gentle On My Mind, and those early memories of him and Glen Campbell on "The Good Time Hour" in the late 60's prime time television will last with me for ever and I am sure will endure with many of you. He was a champion for the fiddle and collected as many original fiddle tune manuscripts and the various literature as anyone I know. He continued to practice furiously on the fiddle even until recently, setting out to get better and better. And he did! He would come to my fiddle camps in Tennessee and just hang out on the porch of the mess hall playing away until way past the sun going down. For all of that and more, I will think of you and love you forever John Hartford.
I also love your home there looking over that Cumberland River. The thoughts of you dreaming about the old steamboats coming past you from days gone by is a poignant one at this time.
I was on the nomination committee of the Kennedy Center Honors last year and did nominate John Hartford. I bet one day you will get that one too John. May God be with you.

Mark O'Connor