Veteran country label executive Lesly Simon passed yesterday (3/27) after battling breast cancer for the last seven years. She was 52. Most recently GM of Garth Brooks' Pearl Records, Simon previously served as Arista/Nashville VP/Promotion. She started her career at RCA Label Group, and spent two years doing pop promotion for Capitol before joining Arista in 2004 as Mgr./South-Midwest Regional Promotion. She jumped to Dir./National Promotion in 2008 and was named VP in 2011.

Simon joined Pearl after leaving Sony/Nashville in 2016, and most recently operated the real estate and residential design firm Colgan Simon. She was among the honorees at the 2022 American Cancer Society Hope Gala. Services will begin at 2:30pm Monday (3/31) at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church in Mountain Brook, AL, with visitation in Graham Hall immediately following. Memorials may be made in her honor to the American Cancer Society or Joe Lee Griffin Hope Lodge.