Jerry Clower

entertainer

Jerry Clower ('51) of Liberty, professional comedian and recording star, died Aug. 24, 1998. He was 71.

Enlisting in the Navy at age 16, Clower served three years as a radioman during World War II. Following the war, he enrolled at Mississippi State and played football while earning a degree in agriculture.

Clower began his career as a fertilizer salesman for Mississippi Chemical Corp., where he honed his storytelling skills during sales calls.

In 1970, a friend recorded some of Clowers stories and sent them to MCA Records, and the rest, as they say, is history. One month later, Talkin'-the first of Clower's 26 albums on the MCA label-went gold.

Clower was a member of Nashville's Grand Ole Opry and was the first country humorist to earn a gold record. His Greatest Hits album sold more than 500,000 copies.

Clower's riotous stories centered around fictional characters in Amite County, where he was born. The Ledbetter clan (Marcel, Ardell, Raynell, Burnell, Lanell, W.L., Udell, Odell, Claude, Newgene, and Clovis-all raised by Aunt Pet and Uncle Versie) figured heavily in the tales. Perhaps his most famous story was "Knock Him Out, John," featuring John Eubanks ("a great American and professional tree climber") who found himself up a tree in the middle of the night tussling with a wildcat.

A point of pride for Clower, a devout Southern Baptist, was that he never told a story that couldn't be told in church.

For 10 straight years, Clower won the top comedian awards from Billboard, Cashbox, and Record World magazines. He was the author of four books: Ain't God Good, Let the Hammer Down, Life Everlaughter, and Stories from Home. He often made as many as 200 appearances a year, mostly in small towns, and he co-hosted the "Country Crossroads" television show, as well as "Nashville on the Road" with singer Jim Ed Brown. Clower was named Mississippi State's National Alumnus of the Year in 1982.

CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather said of him, "Clower stuck to his roots. When he was still poor, he married his childhood sweetheart, Homerline. They stayed married. . . . He pronounced his first name 'JAY-ree' in an accent so purely Mississippi, it seemed to have its own delta, and his voice rolled like an old coon hound's. . . . In truck stops and trailer parks, on front porches and in feed stores, they're hanging their heads. Jerry Clower is gone. He was the genuine article."

Amen.

This World Wide Web version of Alumnus was marked up by Chris Brown <brownc@ur.msstate.edu>.
For information about Mississippi State University, contact msuinfo@ur.msstate.edu.