Jean Shepard

Country Singer

Birthday November 21, 1933

Birth Sign Scorpio

Birthplace Pauls Valley, OK

DEATH DATE Sep 25, 2016 (82)

#89584 Most Popular

About

Country singer who released seventy-three hit singles during her long, storied career.

Before Fame

She was a bass player in the band Melody Ranch Girls when she was a teenager in 1948 and, after being discovered by Hank Thompson, she signed to Capitol Records in 1952.

Trivia

She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011.

Family Life

She was married to fellow country singer Hawkshaw Hawkins for three years before he died in a 1963 plane crash with Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. Together Shepard and Hawkins had two sons, the second with whom she was pregnant at the time of the crash. She later married Benny Birchfield.

Associated With

She recorded a 1953 duet with Ferlin Husky called "A Dear John Letter" and it became the first post-World War II record by a female country artist that sold more than a million copies.