Country Music Association also names singers Ferlin Husky, Don Williams and songwriter Billy Sherrill

The Country Music Association has named Jimmy Dean, a Charter Member of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-entertainer, the newest member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Also named to the Hall were recording artists Ferlin Husky, whose signature song, “Wings of a Dove,” became a No. 1 smash; Don Williams, The Gentle Giant, who racked up 17 No. 1 country hits; and songwriter-producer Billy Sherrill, best known for co-writing Tammy Wynette’s blockbuster hit, “Stand By Your Man.”

Contacted with the news, Dean humorously said, “I thought I was already in there. [But] seriously, it brought a huge grin to my face. I am honored.”

Both Dean and Husky will be inducted in the Veterans Era Artist category. Williams will be inducted in the Modern Era Artist category and Sherrill in the Non-Performer category. Dean, Husky, Sherrill and Williams will increase membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame from 108 to 112 inductees.

“These four gentlemen broadened country music immensely with their talents, exposing millions of fans around the world to our format,” said Steve Moore, chairman of the CMA Board of Directors. “Their contributions to the genre and to popular culture are immeasurable, and we are proud to award them the highest honor in country music.”

Induction ceremonies for the group will take place at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn., later this year. Since 2007, the Museum’s Medallion Ceremony, an annual reunion of the Hall of Fame membership, has served as the official rite of induction for new members.

In October 2009, Jimmy Dean was elected as one of 21 inaugural Members of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame, an honor he shared with such industry legends as Don Tyson, Frank Perdue, Ken Monfort and Dick Knowlton. His election was based primarily on the success of the Jimmy Dean Meat Company he founded in the 1970s, which has since become a unit of Sara Lee Corp. and the No. 1 brand nationally in the breakfast sausage category.

Here is the official CMA release confirming Dean’s induction to the Country Music Hall of Fame:

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 23—Jimmy Ray Dean was born in Olton, Texas, on Aug. 10, 1928, and raised by his mother in Plainview. His mother taught him piano at age 10, which led him to pick up harmonica and accordion in his teen years. Dropping out of high school at age 16, Dean joined the Merchant Marines for two years before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. Stationed at a base in Washington D.C., Dean first performed publicly with a band called the Tennessee Haymakers at clubs around the area. He remained in the area after he left the Air Force in 1948 and created a new band called the Texas Wildcats, which performed both in clubs and on WARL Radio in Arlington, Va.

In 1952, Dean toured U.S. military bases in the Caribbean before returning to Washington, D.C., to record his first single for Four Star Records. “Bummin' Around” was released in 1952 and hit No. 5 on the country singles chart. Broadcast pioneer Connie B. Gay offered Dean the opportunity to host Town and Country Time, a three-hour weekly television show broadcast every Saturday night on the local ABC affiliate, WMAL-TV. Patsy Cline and Roy Clark were among the artists who regularly appeared on the show. The popular Dean was later hired away to Washington D.C.’s CBS affiliate to host a live country show. In 1957, he moved to New York, signed with Columbia Records and hosted The Morning Show, an early morning television variety show for CBS.

In 1961, Dean wrote and recorded his signature song “Big Bad John” in Nashville. The song, which established his flair for spoken narratives, went to No. 1 on both the country and pop charts and earned Dean the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Recording. Additional popular singles followed in the next few years. “Dear Ivan,” “Little Black Book,” and “P.T. 109” (about President John F. Kennedy’s military adventure) all reached the Top 10 on the Country singles charts while "To a Sleeping Beauty," and “The Cajun Queen” charted in the Top 20. All five of these songs also hit the Top 40 on the pop singles charts, with “P.T. 109” making the pop charts Top 10 as well.

During the early 1960s, Dean became the first guest host of The Tonight Show for NBC Television. From 1963 to 1966, The Jimmy Dean Show aired on ABC Television, earning its host the nickname The Dean of Country Music. The variety show regularly featured country music artists as guests, introducing the likes of George Jones, Roger Miller, Buck Owens, Charlie Rich and many more to a national audience. The show also featured frequent appearances from puppeteer Jim Henson, which made his piano-playing dog Rowlf the first Muppet to become a household name.

In 1966, Dean signed with RCA Records and placed “Stand Beside Me” in the Country Top 10 that year. Additional hits followed, including “A Thing Called Love,” “Born to Be by Your Side,” and “A Hammer and Nails.” By now a top name in Hollywood, Dean was also a headliner at major venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and the London Palladium, as well as becoming the first country performer to play the Las Vegas strip.

He was a frequent guest on the talk show circuit, appearing often on Merv Griffin, The Dinah Shore Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and the like. He became a recurring character on the Daniel Boone television series in the late 1960s, acted in several television movies-of-the-week and in 1971 appeared as reclusive billionaire Willard Whyte in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever with Sean Connery. That same year he and Dottie West achieved a Top 40 duet on the country singles charts with “Slowly.’ Dean’s final hit was in 1976 with “I.O.U.,” a narrative tribute honoring his mother that reached the Top 10 on the country charts.

During the late 1960s, Dean broadened his interests after buying a Texas hog farm and transforming it into the Jimmy Dean Meat Company in 1969. While he continued to record and act during the ’70s and ’80s, he spent much of his time on this new business as his sausage recipes, inspired by his grandfather, achieved mass popularity. The company soon became the most successful sausage company in America. Sara Lee Corporation acquired the Jimmy Dean Meat Company in 1984, but Dean continued to be company spokesperson and chairman of the board for nearly 20 years.

Dean married former Mercury/Polygram recording artist Donna Meade in 1991 and moved to an area just outside Richmond, Va. In 2004, the couple co-wrote his autobiography, 30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham. The Deans recently wrote the song “Virginia,” which is slated to become that state's next anthem. He was appointed by the Virginia governor to the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries in 1998.

Dean was inducted into the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997, the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Meat Industry Hall of Fame in 2009.

Now, with his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Jimmy Dean’s legacy as an original in both show business and the meat business is finally secure. ×

» For more information on the Country Music Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony, log onto www.cmaworld.com.