NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Skeeter Davis, who hit the top of the pop charts with “The End of the World” in 1963 and sang on the Grand Ole Opry radio show for more than 40 years, died Sunday of cancer. She was 72.

Davis died at a Nashville hospice, said Grand Ole Opry publicist Jessie Schmidt. Davis had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988 and had a recurrence in 1996.

Davis, nicknamed Skeeter by her grandfather who said she was so active she buzzed around like a mosquito, had toured with Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.

She became a regular on the Opry, a live radio show, in 1959, and continued to perform as late as this year.

Besides “The End of the World,” her hits included “I’m Saving My Love” and “I Can’t Stay Mad at You.”

A native of Dry Ridge, Ky., Davis was born Mary Frances Penick. She took the name Skeeter Davis in the 1950s when she became half of the Davis Sisters duet.

She began a solo career after her duet partner, Betty Jack Davis, was killed in a 1953 car wreck. Skeeter Davis was critically injured in the same accident.

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AP-ES-09-19-04 2136EDT