The Judds, Ray Charles join Country Music Hall of Fame one day after Naomi Judd’s death

NASHVILLE — Ray Charles and The Judds joined the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday in a subdued ceremony filled with tears, laughter and, most of all, music, just one day after Naomi Judd died at the age of 76.

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Daughters Wynonna and Ashley Judd accepted the induction through tears, clasping each other and reciting a Psalm 23 from the Bible.

“It’s a strange dynamic to be this broken and this blessed...But though my heart is broken, I will continue to sing,” Wynona, as she was widely known during her solo career after Naomi Judd stepped back from performing in 1991 following a hepatitis C diagnosis, told the crowd.

The sisters confirmed their mother’s death on Saturday, attributing it to the “disease of mental illness.”

“I’m sorry that she couldn’t hang on until today,” Ashley Judd said of her mother to the crowd while crying.

According to The Tennessean, vocalist and fellow Kentuckian Ricky Skaggs inducted Wynonna and Naomi Judd into the Hall, hailing their legendary catalog for connecting people with a “front porch, back porch and no porch.”

The show did, in fact, go on despite the shock of Naomi Judd’s passing, with the Country Music Hall of Fame also welcoming new inductees Charles, Eddie Bayers and Pete Drake.

Meanwhile, country music royalty, including Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, among others, delivered powerful performances from the Nashville stage.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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