Country Rebel is reporting some very sad news for the radio world.

After a courageous seven-month battle with cancer, Country Radio Hall of Fame inductee Linda Lee has died just days before receiving her first Academy of Country Music award. Lee had planned to travel to Las Vegas to accept the award for Major Market Personality.

Best known for co-hosting the Edwards & Lee afternoon drive show on WYCD 99.5 FM in Detroit, her career began in 1996 doing mornings for the same station.

Throughout her illness, Lee found solace in the thing that she devoted her life to promoting — country music.

“Country music is like a ‘best friend,’always there for you in all your times of need,” she wrote. “There is a country song to describe all the monumental and ordinary moments in my life. And all it takes is a few bars of a song that has touched my heart, and instantly I am taken back to a time & place in my life, and all the memories that go with it.”

Tim Roberts, CBS’ Vice President of Country Music Programming, said of his friend after her death, “Linda has the biggest heart in radio and is one of the most positive people I’ve ever met. Her efforts to help the everyday blue-collar worker or friend in need in Detroit are unmatched in radio. It’s easy to understand why people love her so much, she pours it out every day.”

Survivors include her husband Jeff Young, daughter Gina Holmes Mills, and a stepdaughter.

All of us at Radio Ink send our deepest condolences to Linda’s family and friends.