Country music singer and sausage company founder Jimmy Dean passed away at his Henrico, Virginia home this weekend at the age of 81. According to a brief statement by Jimmy’s wife Donna, Dean died of natural causes Sunday night, June 13th.

Over the course of his long career in entertainment, Dean was a singer, television host, actor and the spokesperson for the sausage company that he founded and to this day still bears his name. As the host of The Jimmy Dean Show in the late 1950s, Dean helped launch the careers of Patsy Cline and Roy Clark. In 1961, Dean had a Number One hit with the song “Big Bad John,” which won him a Grammy for Best Country & Western Recording. The song was later covered by Johnny Cash and Charlie Daniels. Dean had another country chart-topper with “The First Thing Ev’ry Morning (And the Last Thing Ev’ry Night)” in 1965. However, in the later part of the decade, Dean became more well known as a television personality, occasionally guest-hosting The Tonight Show and leading a second Jimmy Dean Show, where he developed a memorable rapport with the Muppets’ Rowlf the Dog.

Courtesy Rock Along Productions

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