Obit: Sheb Wooley (Sept 2003, Age 82)

Subject: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: kendall
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 09:22 PM

Another man done gone...

Sheb Wooley died of lukemia in Nashville. He was best known for his comedy songs such as Purple People eater.
He and another man wrote I Don't look good naked anymore. He was 82. Attending Johnnie Cash's wake was the last thing he did.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: kendall
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 09:24 PM

Who else is hearing the hounds of time?

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 09:25 PM

Aw, hell! All the good ones are checkin' out! Damn, but it must be great music Up There!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 09:31 PM

Just loved him. I remember Whisperin' Bill Anderson saying that Sheb made more money and sold more records of his parody on Bill's big hit "Still" than Bill did. Funny man.....

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: SINSULL
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 09:32 PM

He gave laughter to millions of people. Even the "younger generation" knows the Purple People Eater. That has to be worth something.

If it helps, Kendall. Today, at least one musician was born who will write, sing, play, and entertain us for years to come. A fair and natural trade?

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 09:47 PM

There will always be musicians, but the great ones we know will never come again.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: Dave Swan
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 09:53 PM

My dad met Sheb Wooley when he was in the cast of Rawhide. Remember Pete the scout? Dad said Sheb was a true gentleman and made my father feel welcome on the set. He was well liked by the cast and crew alike.

Fear no more the heat of the sun...

D

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 10:56 PM

I understand he had two Hollywood personnae: Sheb Wooley the singer and Ben Colder the cowboy actor. I enjoyed both.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 11:06 PM

Actually Janet, it was just the opposite.....Ben the singer and Sheb the actor (and singer). An obit here might be in order:

Sheb Wooley -- of "Purple People Eater" Fame -- Dead at 82
Edward Morris
09/16/2003

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.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: X
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 01:53 AM

Is anybody getting tired of this? Damn!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 02:17 AM

Thanks for the obit, Spaw.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: beadie
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 03:03 PM

On the non-performing side of his career, it is interesting to note that Wooley was a "real" cowboy. He had been riding the rodeo circuit in the late forties which helped get him noticed as a potential actor in movie westerns. He continued his life in the saddle nearly to the end, taking part in a working Montana cattle drive in the nineties.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: kendall
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 04:09 PM

Tired of what? death? get used to it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 04:30 PM

Well, we do have to live with death.

Thanks for highlighted the life of a fine songwriter and actor. I was familar with some of his songs but clueless with regard to the man.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 11:37 AM

For a moment I thought you were talking about Shep Woolley a British ex-naval entertainer (and friend of Cyril Tawney) who used to be on the folk scene.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sheb Wooley
From: open mike
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 10:30 PM

i saw in another thread about someone who said one of his female relatives (his mom?) went on a date with Sheb. Let's see now..
which thread was it in?