By Dan Murphy

Executive Director, Meat Industry Hall of Fame

A legend has left us.

Jimmy Dean, the quintessential American storyteller, actor, songwriter, TV personality—and of course, meat industry entrepreneur—died peacefully at his Richmond, Va.-area home last Sunday.

He left us way too soon. Before he’d had a chance to attend his own induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October, an honor long overdue for one of the original voices of the genre, a Grammy Award winner and the man who introduced America to such country music stars as Patsy Cline, Roy Clark and Roger Williams during his years as host of television variety shows on both ABC and CBS.