Jeannie Seely, the awarded country singer of the Grammy Award and Star of Grand Ole Opry, died. She was 85 years old.
Seely died in Nashville on Friday complications of an intestinal infection.
She succeeded as an artist in 1996 with her escape hit “Do’t Touch Me”, who was written by Hank Cochran. The song earned Sely’s first nomination for Grammy Grammy and her victory for the best female country vocal performance during the ninth award ceremony, and she won two additional head nods.
A year later, the singer became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, making her the first woman to regularly welcome segments of project manager on the legendary scene. In total, Selyry played the Grand Ole Opry more than 5,000 times, making it one of the most efficient artists in the music room.
She was born on July 6, 1940 in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Her interest in music started at a young age when she appears on local radio and television stations. After a brief career in the bank in California, Selyry pivoted to write music and signed with Challenge Records, which led him to move to Nashville.
In Nashville, his Country musical career took off with the arrival of 1996 “Don’t Touch Me” via Records monument. The track landed at n ° 2 on the graphic of Billboard Country songs and also obtained its only appearance on the Hot 100, culminating in n ° 85.
From there, she continued to have more than two dozen singles in the country charts, including songs like “Can I Sleep in Your Arms”, which was recorded by Willie Nelson and “Lucky Ladies”. Aside from his own efforts as an artist, Selyry found an additional success for successes for other musicians, notably “Leavin” and Sayin ‘Goodbye “, for Faron Young.
Towards the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sely’s began to collaborate with Jack Greene. The two musicians went together by playing their duets, including “Wish I don’t’s not to miss you”, which went to No. 2 on the Hot Country Singles graph of Billboard.
Throughout her career, she released a total of 17 studio albums, including her latest 2020 album, An American classic. The project included duets with Nelson, Ray Stevens and Lorrie Morgan.
In 2018, she also launched her Siriusxm show Sundays with Selyry. More recently, Seely played his latest show at the Grand Ole Opry in February.
“It does not seem possible to know a world without Seely,” said singer Tim Atwood in a statement. “And as good as Opry Show, the Spotlight Opry will never shine so brilliantly without Jeannie in the central circle.”
Dolly Parton, a friend of Sely’s, shared an additional statement on Instagram: “I have known Jeanie Selyy since we were early in Nashville. She was one of my dearest friends. I think she was one of Nashville’s greatest singers and she had a wonderful sense of humor.
Sely’s husband, Gene Ward, died in December from cancer.
