Jeannie Seely, Grammy-Winning Country Star and Opry Legend, Dead at 85<\/p>\n
Jeannie Seely, Grammy-winning country singer and trailblazing Grand Ole Opry star whose soulful voice and sharp wit made her a beloved figure in country music for more than six decades, died today after months of declining health. She was 85.<\/p>\n
Videos by American Songwriter
\nKnown as Miss Country Soul, Seely\u2018s hit songs include \u201cDon\u2019t Touch Me,\u201d \u201cA Wanderin\u2019 Man,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll Love You More (Than You\u2019ll Need).\u201d Throughout her more than five decades as a Grand Ole Opry member, she performed on the show 5,397 times \u2013 more than any other performer.<\/p>\n
Seely had battled health issues for nearly a year, worsening in December after the passing of her husband, Gene Ward. She endured multiple back surgeries this spring for vertebrae repairs, as well as two emergency abdominal surgeries. She was at Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tennessee, when she passed from complications of an intestinal infection.<\/p>\n
Seely was considered to be the oldest actively working female entertainer in country music at the time of her death.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis lady is very, very special,\u201d said Dan Rogers, senior vp and executive producer of the Grand Ole Opry in 2022. \u201cShe is beloved by the staff, her fellow artists, and fans \u2026 around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeannie Seely Didn\u2019t Consider Herself a Musician
\nSeely was also a musician, producer, author, and actress. But humble to her core, she didn\u2019t think of herself as any of those things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t consider myself a musician at all,\u201d Seely told the Grizzly Rose. \u201cI\u2019m definitely a songwriter, and even as a singer, I hesitate to call myself a singer because there are so many who sing better. I just like to be known as an entertainer.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was born Marilyn Jeanne Seely on July 6, 1940, to Leo Seely and Irene Seely in Titusville, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Seely\u2019s mother said her daughter was only four years old when she learned to twist the knob on the family\u2019s large console radio to 650 WSM \u2013 the home of the Grand Ole Opry. A little more than 20 years later, the Opry invited Seely to become a member. The Grand Ole Opry star remembered sitting in her family\u2019s car on Saturday nights listening to the Opry, eating popcorn, and drinking a soda while her parents played cards at a friend\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
Jeannie Seely was 4 Years Old When She Found the Opry on the Radio
\nAt 11 years old, Seely was on the radio herself \u2013 singing on a weekly radio show in nearby Meadville. A few years later, she made it onto television in Erie, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
She moved to California, where she worked as a secretary for Liberty and Imperial Records. Dottie West convinced her to move to Nashville in 1965.<\/p>\n
Seely remembered telling West she didn\u2019t know enough to move to Nashville. West responded, \u201cJeannie, that\u2019s where you go to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
After arriving in Music City, her \u201cDon\u2019t Touch Me\u201d went Top 5 and won a Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Vocal Performance \u2013 Female in 1967. She joined the Grand Ole Opry later that year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started crying,\u201d Seely said, \u201cand then I encored, and that was even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
She and Jack Green began a professional working relationship, charting their top song, \u201cWish I Didn\u2019t Have to Miss You,\u201d in 1969 \u2013 the same year she married fellow country singer-songwriter Hank Cochran. They divorced a decade later.<\/p>\n
Seely was also a successful songwriter, writing songs for West, Connie Smith, Willie Nelson, Ray Price, and Faron Young\u2019s 1973 Top 10 hit, \u201cLeavin\u2019 and Sayin\u2019 Goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeannie Seely was an Actress, Songwriter, Author and Singer
\nAn injury from a 1977 car accident meant she had to take some time off. But when Seely resumed her career, she expanded it. The singer dove into acting, appearing alongside Willie Nelson in the film Honeysuckle Rose. She also became the first female to host the Grand Ole Opry.<\/p>\n
Seely was an author by 1989, publishing a book of witticisms called Pieces of a Puzzled Mind.
\nIn the 1990s, she released her self-titled album and her first Christmas project, Number One Christmas. She put out Life\u2019s Highway in 2003, a country\/bluegrass collaboration album with Steve Wariner, the Osborne Brothers, and The Whites.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Seely recorded West\u2019s 1966 hit \u201cSuffertime\u201d because she wanted to give a classic song her signature blues treatment and \u201crecreate history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just doing things, truthfully, that just sound fun to do,\u201d she told People.<\/p>\n
Seely found love again, marrying Gene Ward in 2010. The couple stayed together until his passing in late 2024.<\/p>\n
Before his death, Seely wrote: \u201cGene Ward is one of the most amazing men I have ever known, and I have been so blessed to be his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
She Just Wanted to Be Happy
\nThe country loved to spend her time in her cozy home by the river in Nashville. She often posted photos of the water from her deck, and said she\u2019s never been as content anywhere as she is in her small cottage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t live a glamorous lifestyle,\u201d she told the Grizzly Rose. \u201cI\u2019ve never liked that. I don\u2019t live to try and impress anybody. Except being happy. I just want to live my life comfortably, doing what I love to do for a living. I love my neighbors, and my family, and all of my friends. I like to forget that I\u2019m an entertainer or \u2018celebrity\u2019 as often as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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