Plainview, Texas, Mourns Death
of Native Son, Jimmy Dean

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

Sausage King and singer, songwriter, Jimmy Dean is being mourned in the Texas Panhandle towns of Plainview and Olton, as he passed away on Sunday, June 13th, at his home in Virginia, at age 81. Dean, who would first become a household name in the entertainment business, as a singer and performer in the 1950's and 1960's, was noted for his Grammy award winning song "Big Bad John," about a heroic, life-saving rescue in the West Virginia Coal Mines, continued his rise to fame, when he purchased a hog farm in Hale County, Texas, and began a career in the sausage-making business.

 

"Jimmy Dean Country Sausage" became a household breakfast item, when out of necessity
Jimmy Dean had to make sausage to "bale him out" of the hog business, that had taken
a turn for the worse, back in the late 1960's.

 

Born on a hardscrabble farm in Hale County, near Olton, Dean accounts the poverty and hard upbringing he received, in a single-parent family during the Great Depression, in his autobiography, "Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham, Jimmy Dean's Own Story." He credits his mother, Ruth Taylor Dean, as the stable force in his life and the driving force of the family, during the lean years. He was born in 1928 and dropped out of high school, after the ninth grade. In his book, Dean describes his mother as "the toughest lady I've ever known, but she was also, a sweet, loving mother and icon. He wrote the song, "I.O.U." about his mother and dedicated the autobiography to her.

Dean's start in the music business came as an accordionist, at a nightclub, near Bolling Air Force Base, outside of Washington D.C., where he was stationed during his military service, during WWII. He became the front man for his band, "The Texas Wildcats" and began appearing on Washington area radio stations, as a popular attraction. His first major hit was "Bummin' Around," in the 1950's, and followed that with the 1961 Grammy award winning "Big Bad John."

 

 

Jimmy Dean hosted "The Jimmy Dean Show" on CBS Television, in the mid-1960's, that was well received to the audiences across the country. However, his next career endeared him to many fans, as he entered the hog business, in his native Hale County, in 1969. He and his brother, Don, out of necessity, that many local farmers can identify with, began making sausage, from knowledge that they remembered from slaughtering hogs and making sausage with a family recipe of seasonings, when the hog market took a sudden "nosedive!" They developed the "Jimmy Dean Sausage" Brand that eventually became a household word in breakfast selections, and sold the company to Sara Lee Corporation in 1984, with Dean continuing advertising for the brand for a number of years.

 

 

The development of the sausage brand out of necessity, demonstrates the "can do" attitude of Dean's life, as he once said that his motto had always been "Getting Knocked Down Is Just Part of Life, but Getting Up Is Also!" "I was a scrawny West Texas kid, who wore discarded sugar sack shirts, under bib overalls, to school," described Dean, about his early life in the Texas Panhandle. "And, I dreamed of having indoor plumbing and eating bologna anytime I wanted!"

 

The Old High School in Olton, Texas.

 

Today, Olton, Texas, is a cotton and grain farming region of the Texas Panhandle.

 

Dean, like so many other West Texas Panhandle boys, remembered pickin' cotton and pullin' boles, row after row, and earning a meager 50 cents per hundred weight, during the Great Depression, and made certain that he was frugal with his money and invested it, so he wouldn't have to experience those dark days again.

Dean, who lived with his wife, Donna Meade Dean, also a singer and songwriter, in Henrico County, Virginia, where he was active in community growth and affairs and enjoyed his 200-acre estate, outside of Richmond. He enjoyed watching the sunsets on the James River.

 

 

 

This painted steer is part of the "Painted Cow" Dislplay in Plainview, depicting the rich
livestock and grain industry in the region, of massive feedlots. This icon sits in front of the
Hale County State Bank.

 

Dean passed away on Sunday night, at his home, and will be honored in a private service.

"Jimmy Dean proves that one can rise to fame from humble beginnings, in America," expressed one Plainview, Texas, acquaintance. "He rose from pickin' cotton, on a hardscrabble farm, and 'rubbed elbows' with the Presidents, movie giants and entertainers such as Elvis, Roy Clark, Charlie Rich, and Patsy Cline, while performing on television, in Carnegie Hall, and being named to the Country Music Hall of Fame!"

"Jimmy Ray Dean is one of the few national celebrities that knows that you go through, Quarterway, Halfway, and Three-Quarterway, to get from Plainview to Olton!" expressed another Hale County acquaintance. "He came up the hard way and never forgot his roots in West Texas! He credited much of his moral compass and musical interests to his experiences, as a child, at Seth Ward Baptist Church, in Hale County!"

 

Jimmy Dean, a native of the Panhandle, was familiar with the local
Quarterway, Halfway, and Three-Quarterway communities from
Plainview to Olton, that pioneers traveled between the two Panhandle towns.

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