He definitely was a great businessman:
Country singer Jimmy Dean, whose career as a storyteller was equaled later in life by his success as a sausage pitchman, died at his home in Varina, Virginia, on Sunday night at the age of 81. According to CNN, the Country Music Hall of Famer apparently died of natural causes.
Though later in life his name was most familiar for his famous line of smoked sausages, Dean made his mark first in the world of country music, scoring a #1 hit on the pop and country charts in 1961 with the song “Big Bad John,” a tune about a mysterious, Paul Bunyan-esque coal miner who saves his fellow workers after a mine collapse. Written with country legend Roy Acuff, the million-selling song won a 1962 Grammy for Best Country & Western Recording and helped save Dean’s recording career, after his label, Columbia Records, was considering dropping him.
It seems like in the summertime we lose alot of people. Condolences to all affected.
