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Obituaries
Jimmy Dean dies
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 15 June 2010
Country singer Jimmy Dean, best known for his big hit ‘Big Bad John’, has died, aged 81.
Dean started his career in the entertainment industry in the late 1940s after a time in the US Air Force. He hosted a radio show in Washington DC in the early 1950s, and scored one hit during that time in the form of ‘Bummin Around’, though it was when he started working for US broadcaster CBS and signed to its then sister record company Columbia Records that his music career started to take off properly. He had a number of hits in the sixties and seventies, though his 1961 hit ‘Big Bad John’ remained his most famous.
Although his music career grew, Dean continued to work in TV – including some stints on ‘The Tonight Show’ and some memorable sketches with Rowlf the Dog on ‘The Muppet Show’ – and later turned to acting. Also a business man, in 1969 he founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company, and became the face of his product by appearing in numerous TV ads. He sold the sausage company in 1984, though stayed involved in its running until the start of the last decade.
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame earlier this year. He is survived by his wife, Mary Sue, and three children.
