Celebrity Graveland

November 21, 1933 – September 25, 2016

One of the pioneering female voices in country music, Jean Shepard rose to fame in the early 1950s with the hit duet “A Dear John Letter” with Ferlin Husky. The song reached number 1 on the country charts and the duo recorded a follow-up single later the same year. Jean would go on to record more than two dozen albums and chart more than 40 singles over the course of her 60 year career.

Shepard moved with her family at the age of 10 from her native Oklahoma to northern California. In high school, she co-founded the all-girl honky tonk band, The Melody Ranch Girls. Despite jeers from classmates over the genre choice, the group gave Shepard a chance to find her voice and eventually led to her discovery by country singer, Hank Thompson.

After the success of “A Dear John Letter,” Shepard’s next major hit was 1955’s “A Satisfied Mind” which was in direct competition with 2 other simultaneous versions of the song (from Red Foley and Porter Wagoner) but still peaked at number 4 on the country charts. Also in 1955, Shepard was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. She remained an active performer and member at the Opry for 60 years.

Shepard was married to fellow country singer, Hawkshaw Hawkins. The couple had two children. After his death alongside Patsy Cline in 1963, Marty Robbins wrote the song “Two Little Boys” for Jean and she recorded it to honor her late husband’s legacy.

While her recording career all but stopped in the early 1980s, Jean Shepard remained in the public eye. At the time of her death in 2016 from Parkinson’s disease at the age of 82, she was the longest surviving member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Burial

Hendersonville Memory Gardens – Hendersonville, TN

Specific Location

Garden of John; Head south along the sidewalk toward the large Psalm 23 above ground niche mausoleum. Jean is buried about 5 rows past this mausoleum to the southwest. Her large purple marker is unmistakable.

This entry was posted on July 8, 2024 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Hendersonville Memory Gardens with tags Country Musicians, Grand Ole Opry, Hendersonville Memory Gardens, Musicians, Singers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.