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  #1  
Old 01-02-2015, 11:53 PM
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Default Beverly Hillbillies Donna Douglas and Grand Ole Opry star Little Jimmy Dickens gone

Two days into the new year we've lost two great stars already .I love both of them.

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/t...t-81/21195559/


Maria Puente, USA TODAY 5:21 p.m. EST January 2, 2015
Donna Douglas, the voluptuous Louisiana-born actress who played critter-loving Elly May Clampett on the 1960's CBS series 'The Beverly Hillbillies" died on New Years day. (Photo: CBS)
Donna Dougl

Donna Douglas, who played hillbilly bombshell Elly May Clampett on the baby-boomer-beloved 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, has died. She was 82.

Charlene Smith, her niece-in-law, confirmed Friday to USA TODAY that she died of pancreatic cancer on New Year's Day at Baton Rouge General Hospital, near her home in Zachary, La.

The Baton Rouge paper, The Advocate and other media outlets, including local TV station WAFB, also confirmed her death, although most put her age at 81.

"She was 82," Smith said firmly, adding jokingly, "She's going to haunt me for that."

Douglas' death leaves only one member of the show's original cast still alive: Max Baer Jr., who played Elly May's cousin, Jethro. He is 77.

"She was Elly May until the day she died," Baer told the website RumorFix. "When I saw her for autograph signings or other gatherings, she always dressed the same with pink or blue" and of course those signature pigtails."

He said he last saw Douglas in January 2013 for an autograph signing in Los Angeles. He said she had pancreatic cancer for the last months of her life.

"But she was a very private person — nothing like me." A friend told him Donna had a message for him: "Tell Maxie I thought I was going to get better."

Smith described Douglas as a "very good Christian lady. We all loved her," she said. "Whenever she gave presents, they always came with (passages) from Scripture."

Douglas, a former Miss Baton Rouge and Miss New Orleans, was born in Pride, La., and returned to live in Zachary, after her time in Hollywood, to be near her only child, son Danny Bourgeois. She is survived by him, by three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, one brother and other extended family members, Smith said.

She was married and divorced twice, including the second time, to The Beverly Hillbillies director, Robert Leeds.

Smith said the family plans a private funeral.

Douglas grew up in Pride and attended a local Catholic high school, where she played softball and basketball, and was a member of the school's first graduating class.

But she'll always be known as Elly May — the tomboy-but-sweetly sexy blond Clampett daughter who never seemed to be aware of her effect on men, and who referred to their Beverly Hills mansion swimming pool as the "SEE-ment pond."

In many ways, she was Elly May, with her own real-life rags-to-riches story.

"Oh, yeah, it was just like a slice out of my life," she told The Advocate in an interview a few years ago." I knew everything about Elly."

And she didn't mind the association, either. "So many kinds of people relate to Elly May," Douglas said, according to the Associated Press. "So many people love her, and that means a lot to me."

Douglas also will be remembered as co-starring opposite Elvis Presley in the 1966 film Frankie and Johnny, and for an especially creepy Twilight Zone episode, "The Eye of the Beholder."

The Beverly Hillbillies was a classic fish-out-of water comedy about a poor backwoods Ozark family transplanted to California after striking oil ("black gold" as the banjo-inflected theme song went) on their land.

Starring Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett (he died in 2003) and Irene Ryan (she died in 1973) as Granny, the show ran for nine years on CBS, from 1962 to 1971. It consistently ranked in the top most-watched programs on TV during its run, even though critics didn't care for it.

After Hillbillies ended, Douglas worked in real estate, recorded country and gospel music albums and wrote a book for children that drew on biblical themes.

In 2010 she sued CBS and toymaker Mattel seeking some of the proceeds from sales of a Barbie doll that used Elly May's name and likeness. The suit was settled in 2011.

To this day, many boomers can sing the theme song by heart. But even some non-boomers expressed appreciation on Twitter at the news of Douglas' death.

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Grand Ole Opry's Little Jimmy Dickens.


http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...at-94-20150102



Grand Ole Opry Legend Little Jimmy Dickens Dead at 94
The comedic country star — "Tater" to friend Hank Williams — was the oldest living member of the Opry

By Stephen L. Betts | January 2, 2015

Longtime Grand Ole Opry star Little Jimmy Dickens, as easily recognized for his rhinestone-studded stage costumes as for his diminutive stature, has died of cardiac arrest. Dickens, who turned 94 on December 19th, was admitted to a Nashville-area hospital on Christmas Day after suffering a stroke. He last performed at the Opry on December 20th as part of his birthday celebration.


The country singer was best known for such novelty hits as "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" and "Take an Old Cold Tater (and Wait)," the latter of which inspired fellow Opry member Hank Williams to nickname him "Tater." Younger country fans, meanwhile, have recognized the 4-foot-11 singer for his appearances in several videos by Brad Paisley, who during his teenage years opened several shows for the country legend.

James Cecil Dickens was the oldest of 13 children born to a farmer in the coal-camp community of Bolt, West Virginia. He began his career in radio while studying at West Virginia University. He would walk several miles to and from the nearby town of Beckley, where he would open a morning broadcast on WJLS by imitating the crow of a rooster. Signed to Columbia Records in 1948, Dickens was first invited to perform on the Opry by Roy Acuff. Early hits for the singer included "Country Boy," "A-Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed," "My Heart's Bouquet" and "Hillbilly Fever," all of which hit the Top 10 between 1949 and 1950. In addition to 13 trips to Europe, Dickens twice entertained the troops in Vietnam, and in 1964, became the first country artist to completely circle the globe on a world tour. His 1965 hit "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" (watch a performance of the song below) topped the country chart for two weeks and also reached Number 15 on the pop chart. The success of that single led to his appearance on a number of network TV series, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. It was, in fact, Carson's famous comedic putdowns that inspired "Bird of Paradise" songwriter Neal Merritt to pen the tune (in 20 minutes).

Other hits throughout Dickens' career included "Out Behind the Barn" and his signature song, "I'm Little But I'm Loud." In 1997, Martina McBride included a snippet of a performance of that song, recorded live when she was seven years old, on her album Evolution. The self-deprecating entertainer often joked about his size onstage saying that he was "Willie Nelson after taxes." He also participated in a series of comic bits with CMA Awards show co-hosts Paisley and Carrie Underwood, including a scene-stealing Kanye West-inspired bit in 2009 and a 2011 role in the show as "Little Justin Bieber."

In 2008, Dickens ascended a step-ladder on the Opry stage to invite 6-foot-6 country singer Trace Adkins to be a Grand Ole Opry member. Another Opry membership invite, this time in 2013 for the band Old Crow Medicine Show, had Dickens returning to the stage following a battle with ill health.

"The Grand Ole Opry did not have a better friend than Little Jimmy Dickens," says Pete Fisher, Opry Vice President and General Manager. "He loved the audience and his Opry family, and all of us loved him back. He was a one-of-a-kind entertainer and a great soul whose spirit will live on for years to come."

"It's like losing a best friend," Nancy Jones tells Rolling Stone Country. The widow of country icon George Jones was close to Dickens, as was her late husband. In fact, Jones released a tribute to the music of Little Jimmy in 1964, titled George Jones Sings Like the Dickens!. "He and George were so close. They would room together on the road. And Jimmy knew all the good, true stories about George. He'd tell me things even I didn't know."

After Jones's death, Nancy says she "kidnapped" Dickens while the Opry star was recuperating from an illness to show him the Possum's grave. "He was in his PJs and robe and I put him in the car and took him to George's gravesite," she recalls, laughing. "He made a lot of people smile."

Brad Paisley with Little Jimmy Dickens in 2010 (Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Paisley, Dickens' comedic foil in his later years, remembered the man he called "my hero" in a lengthy post on his website. "Much will be said and written about his incredible and unique place in Country Music history. Which could fill a book. But that isn't how I'll remember him," Paisley wrote. "I will remember the human being that best check-marked all the boxes of a complete and wonderful life. My hero."

Little Jimmy Dickens was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1983. He and his wife, Mona, were married on Christmas Eve in 1971. In 1996, the couple celebrated their 25th anniversary by renewing their marriage vows on the venerable Opry stage.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Hudak)

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  #2  
Old 01-03-2015, 01:45 AM
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It's so sad, both of their losses. Both seemed to come from much more sincere times in this culture. I never met either, but I have quite a few friends that knew Little Jimmy, and all have said that he was just the sweetest, most genuine person ever.

May they both rest in peace.
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Old 01-03-2015, 10:33 AM
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Originally Posted by HomerMcvie View Post
It's so sad, both of their losses. Both seemed to come from much more sincere times in this culture. I never met either, but I have quite a few friends that knew Little Jimmy, and all have said that he was just the sweetest, most genuine person ever.

May they both rest in peace.
Yea I always love hearing Jimmy's funny jokes about old people every weekend on the Opry.

Donna was so beautiful looking up to now.She was a year younger then my mom would of been now.
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Old 01-03-2015, 02:33 PM
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Originally Posted by Macfanforever View Post
Yea I always love hearing Jimmy's funny jokes about old people every weekend on the Opry.

Donna was so beautiful looking up to now.She was a year younger then my mom would of been now.
My favorite(which I never get tired of) is him telling the crowd that he has a stiff neck...that he was getting ready to come to the Opry, and was dabbing a little toilet water on his neck, and the lid fell down and hit him in the head.


I LOVE that one.
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