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Sheb Wooley - RIP
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grab-@meer.net
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Sep 22, 2003 05:25 PDT
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Sheb Wooley -- of "Purple People Eater" Fame -- Dead at 82
Edward Morris
Singer, songwriter and actor Sheb Wooley -- who also recorded a series
of parody hits as Ben Colder -- died Tuesday (Sept. 16) at Skyline
Medical Center in Nashville. He was 82. Wooley had suffered from
leukemia for the past five years, his widow, Linda Dotson, told CMT.com.
However, she said he had been strong enough to go with her to Johnny
Cash's wake on Sunday (Sept. 14).
While there, she continued, he seemed to falter: "It was like God laid
His hand on his shoulder and said, 'You'll be the third [country music
figure] to go,'" Dotson observed. (TV actor John Ritter, son of Country
Music Hall of Fame member Tex Ritter, died the day before Cash.)
Shelby F. Wooley was born April 10, 1921, near Erick, Okla. While a
teenager, he worked as a rodeo rider and formed his own band. In the
mid-1940s, he performed on radio stations WLAC and WSM in Nashville and
subsequently had his own show on the Calumet Radio Network.
He signed to Bullet Records in 1946, moving two years later to MGM
Records where he remained until 1973. Wooley was a major musical
influence on Roger Miller, who was related to him by marriage. Miller
was only 11 when Wooley gave him his first fiddle.
Wooley began acting in movies in 1950, appearing first in Rocky Mountain
with Errol Flynn. In 1952, he played killer Ben Miller in the Gary
Cooper-Grace Kelly classic western, High Noon. Altogether, he acted in
more than 60 films, among them Giant (1956) and Hoosiers (1986).
Prominent in television acting as well, he played the role of Pete Nolan
in the popular Rawhide series from 1959 to 1966.
As a recording artist, Wooley had his first success on the pop charts.
His "Are You Satisfied?" barely made a dent in 1955, reaching only the
No. 95 spot. But three years later, he unleashed a monster with the
novelty tune, "The Purple People Eater." It went No. 1 on the pop
listings and stayed there for six weeks. "That's My Pa," another novelty
effort in 1962, was his first country hit. It also reached No. 1.
As Ben Colder, Wooley scored six country and five pop hits with such
parodies as "Don't Go Near the Eskimos" (a takeoff on "Don't Go Near the
Indians"), "Still No. 2," "Almost Persuaded No. 2," "Detroit City No. 2"
and "Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later That Same Day)." His last charted
country song came in 1971 with "Fifteen Beers Ago," a sendup of Conway
Twitty's "Fifteen Years Ago." Fittingly enough, Wooley wrote the theme
song for the Hee Haw TV series. In 1968, the Country Music Association
honored him with its comedian of the year award.
On Oct. 9, 2002, then U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee saluted
Wooley as an "American treasure" by reading a catalog of his
achievements into the Congressional Record. "He never strayed far from
his roots," Thompson said, "and always knew how to rope in an audience."
Wooley's funeral will be held Monday (Sept. 22) "at high noon," Dotson
said, at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., and will be open
to the public. He is survived by his widow; two daughters, Christie
Wooley and Shauna Dotson; and two grandchildren.
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