Jeannie Seely, the soulful nation music singer behind such requirements like “Do not Contact Me,” has died. She was 85.
Her publicist, Don Murry Grubbs, said she died Friday after succumbing to problems from an intestinal an infection.
Often known as “Miss Nation Soul” for her distinctive vocal fashion, Seely was a trailblazer for girls in nation music, celebrated for her spirited nonconformity and for a string of simple hits within the ’60s and ’70s.
Her second husband, Gene Ward, died in December. In Could, Seely revealed that she was in restoration after present process a number of again surgical procedures, two emergency procedures and spending 11 days within the ICU. She additionally suffered a bout of pneumonia.
“Rehab is fairly robust, however every day is wanting brighter and final night time, I noticed a light-weight on the finish of the tunnel. And it was neon, so I knew it was mine!” she mentioned in an announcement on the time. “The unsinkable Seely is working her method again.”
Dolly Parton was certainly one of a number of nation music luminaries paying her tribute on Friday, saying she met Seely after they have been each younger and beginning out in Nashville.
“She was certainly one of my dearest buddies,” Parton said on her social media accounts. “I believe she was one of many larger singers in Nashville and he or she had an exquisite humorousness. We had many great laughs collectively, cried over sure issues collectively and he or she might be missed.”
Singer Charlie Daniels mentioned on X that Seely was “a nationwide treasure, and one wonderful woman.”
Seely was born in July 1940, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, about two hours north of Pittsburgh and was raised in close by Townville. Her love of nation music was prompt; her mom sang, and her father performed the banjo. When she was a toddler, she sang on native radio applications and carried out on native tv. In her early 20s, she moved to Los Angeles to kick-start a profession, taking a job with Liberty and Imperial Information in Hollywood.
She stored writing and recording. Nashville was subsequent: She sang on Porter Wagoner’s present; she received a cope with Monument Information. Her biggest hit would arrive quickly afterward: “Do not Contact Me,” the crossover ballad written by Hank Cochran. The track earned Seely her first and solely Grammy Award, for greatest nation & western vocal efficiency within the feminine class.
Cochran and Seely have been married in 1969 and divorced in 1979.
Seely broke boundaries in her profession โ at a time when nation music anticipated a type of subservience from its ladies performers, Seely was a little bit of a insurgent, identified for carrying a miniskirt on the Grand Ole Opry stage when it was nonetheless taboo.
And she or he had a variety of nation hits within the ’60s and ’70s, together with three High 10 hits on what’s now referred to as Billboard’s sizzling nation songs chart: “Do not Contact Me,” 1967’s “I am going to Love You Extra (Than You Want)” and 1973’s “Can I Sleep In Your Arms?”, tailored from the folks track “Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?”
Within the years since, Seely continued to launch albums, carry out and host, recurrently showing on nation music programming. Her songs are thought of classics, and have been recorded by everybody from Merle Haggard, Ray Worth and Connie Smith to Ernest Tubb, Grandpa Jones and Little Jimmy Dickens.
And Seely by no means stopped working in nation music. Since 2018, she’s hosted the weekly “Sunday’s with Seely” on Willie Nelson’s Willie’s Roadhouse SiriusXM channel. That very same yr, she was inducted into the Music Metropolis Stroll of Fame.
She appeared almost 5,400 instances on the Grand Ole Opry, which she has been a member of since 1967. Grubbs mentioned Saturday’s Grand Ole Opry present could be devoted to Seely.
She launched her final track in July 2024, a canopy of Dottie West’s “Suffertime,” recorded on the world-renowned RCA Studio B. She carried out it on the Opry the yr earlier than.
