The beloved country music performer was 81.
The Cowboys & Indians crew would like to extend condolences to the friends, family and many fellow fans of Jim Ed Brown, the country music legend – and newly elected member of the Country Music Hall of Fame – who passed away Thursday at Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, Tennessee. He was 81.
According to UPI, Brown revealed last fall that he had been treated for lung cancer. Earlier this year, he said that he was in remission. (“The Man Upstairs has blessed me,” he told Cowboys & Indians during an interview that appears in our July 2015 issue.) Indeed, he had been scheduled to perform Sunday during the now-in-progress CMA Music Festival. At the beginning of June, however, Brown’s daughter reported that the disease had returned.
A native of Sparkman Arkansas, Brown began his musical career as a member of The Browns with sisters Maxine and Bonnie. Their’ 1959 breakthrough smash “The Three Bells” topped Billboard’s country chart for ten consecutive weeks, and spent four weeks atop Billboard’s all-genre singles chart. On the strength of that success and follow-up singles -- including “Scarlet Ribbons (for Her Hair),” “The Old Lamplighter” and “Send Me the Pillow You Dream On” -- The Browns were invited to join the Grand Ole Opry in 1963.
Maxine and Bonnie decided to retire from show business in 1967, but Brown stayed in Nashville as a solo artist on RCA. From 1967 through 1974, he topped the country charts with such singles as “Pop a Top,” “Morning,” “Southern Loving,” “Sometime Sunshine” and “It’s That Time of Night.” In 1976, he began recording duets with Helen Cornelius, logging a No. 1 country hit with “I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You.” With Cornelius, Brown won a CMA Vocal Duo of the Year award and reached country’s Top 10 with “Saying Hello, Saying I Love You, Saying Goodbye,” “If the World Ran Out of Love Tonight,” “Lying in Love with You,” “Fools,” and “Morning Comes Too Early.”
More recently, while Brown was undergoing cancer treatments, Plowboy Records released In Style Again, Brown’s first solo album in more than three decades. Fellow Opry stars Vince Gill and Sharon and Cheryl White joined Brown on the critically acclaimed album. Also on the album: Helen Cornelius, who recorded the classic “Don’t Let Me Cross Over” with Brown.
In March, Brown and his sisters were elected along with Grady Martin and The Oak Ridge Boys as the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The official induction had been scheduled for October. Because of his failing health, however, Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern, Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson, and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young visited Brown in his hospital room June 4 to present him with a medallion commemorating his Hall of Fame membership.
After hearing the sad news of Brown’s death Thursday, Billboard writer Chuck Dauphin offered a heartfelt tribute:
“I was privileged to have interviewed Jim Ed Brown on several occasions, and above his talent and charisma, he was class personified. His last album was In Style Again, but truth be told... he never went out of it. He was a man who loved what he did. Wrapping up our interview, the 80-year old was as excited about having new music out as someone a quarter of his age.
“’It’s always good to hear a new song. I love what I do. People have always been great to me. They have accepted me into their homes and lives. It’s unreal what radio and television has done for me. I am a very blessed man.’”