ELLSWORTH – Tom Salisbury, a local man known as Cowboy Tommy Dean on his Independent Country music program at radio station WERU, has died at the age of 50.

“We lost a really big heart at WERU,” Joel Mann, the station’s program and operations manager, said Wednesday. “His focus on helping other people was huge.”

Salisbury was working to help others on Sunday afternoon when he suddenly took ill at American Legion Post 207 in Trenton, where he was a member of the post’s Sons of Legionaires group, according to Rae Jean Young, the post’s administrative assistant.

On April 6, he had hosted an annual yard sale and auction benefit at the Post where he raised more than $5,000 for the Legion’s Christmas for Families program, Young said. Last Sunday, a week after the benefit, he was meeting with Legion officials to make plans for an annual fall benefit for the same program when he said he didn’t feel well, walked out into the hallway, and collapsed, she said.

Last fall, Salisbury helped make sure 193 children got gifts and more than 200 families got food baskets at Christmas by hosting a country music benefit concert at the Legion post, she said.

“He didn’t hesitate to give his last dollar to anybody,” Young said. “It’s quite devastating.”

During his seven years as a disc jockey at WERU, Salisbury had built up a loyal local following and garnered some national attention for his efforts to highlight independent and up-and-coming country artists on his show, according to Mann. The independent community radio station is broadcast at 89.9 FM on the coast and at 102.9 FM in Bangor.

In 2004, Salisbury won the People’s Choice Award for DJ of the Year by the Tennessee Country Music Alliance. He also had won a top song-writing award from the North American Country Music Associations, International for teaming up with Lewiston’s Jim Flynn when they wrote “She Took My Cash (And Left Me With The Blues).”

But despite the awards and honors, Salisbury never developed an ego about his accomplishments, according to Mann. His show’s most recent time slot was from 4 to 6 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, a time slot that other deejays at the station weren’t exactly jealous about, Mann said.

In the summers Salisbury dropped his radio program to work full-time at the Cottage Street Bakery in Bar Harbor, which he co-owned, but every fall he would come back to start his radio show anew, he said.

“He was the most humble, sweetest guy,” Mann said. “He brought people together. People like Tommy Dean don’t come along very often.”

According to Young, Salisbury’s generosity didn’t stop with the Legion benefits. A devout Johnny Cash fan, Salisbury went to great lengths to bring music to other people’s lives, she said.

The deejay collected tapes and CDs of country artists and would hand them out to veterans when he and local country musicians entertained at veterans homes in Bangor, Machias and other towns, Young said. He took donations of tape and CD players that he gave to the veterans to make sure that they could listen to the music whenever they wanted.

Salisbury produced and sold CDs of local country musicians, the proceeds from which he donated to the Special Olympics in Maine, according to Young. He also was known to have hosted a benefit for a Franklin couple whose home burned down in 2003.

And his connections in the country music world benefited others, she said. At the April 6 auction, one item that sold was a guitar that Salisbury had sent to Nashville, where it was signed by nationally known musicians Brad Paisley, Suzy Bogguss, and Bill Anderson, among others.

“He was so fantastic,” Young said. “If it wasn’t for him, those children and their families wouldn’t have gotten toys and food at Christmas.”

On WERU’s Web site Matt Murphy, the station’s general manager, has posted a tribute to Salisbury in which he praises the deejay’s devotion to his audience and to the independent country artists he promoted on his show.

“It is no cliche to say that you really couldn’t find a nicer, more decent man than Cowboy Tommy Dean,” Murphy wrote. “His sudden passing is a terrible loss to the community and we will miss him deeply at WERU.”

A celebration of Salisbury’s life will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 27, at the Legion hall on Route 3 in Trenton, according to Young. The Legion is accepting donations to Salisbury’s family, she said, but financial donations can be made directly by sending checks to Mrs. Agnes Salisbury, 408 Christian Ridge Road, Ellsworth 04605.