Grand Ole Opry member, country music artist, and Brentwood resident Stonewall Jackson passed away on Saturday, December 4 after a long battle with vascular dementia. He was 89. Jackson was born in Tabor City, North Carolina on November 6, 1932.
Jackson joined the Grand Ole Opry on November 3, 1956, longer ago than any other current Opry member. Over the course of his decades-long career, Jackson’s traditional country sound landed on the Billboard country singles chart more than 40 times, including with his now-classic “Waterloo” as well as “Don’t Be Angry”, “I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water”, and “B.J. the D.J.”, among many others.
The Opry website shared about Stonewall Jackson stating Stonewall also made the first “live” album recorded at the Ryman Auditorium, 1971’s Recorded Live at the Grand Ole Opry. “We went in and recorded a few new songs, and a few of the hits I already had, kind of like I did my show out on the road,” he says. “It was a real good seller for me.”
Porter Wagoner used to introduce Stonewall by saying that he came to the Opry “with a heart full of love and a sack full of songs.” He still sings those songs with the same old-school, down-home directness that he did the day he first walked onto the Opry stage.
Stonewall lived in Brentwood with his wife, Juanita, who ran his publishing company Turp Tunes. Juanita died in 2019 from Alzheimer’s Disease, reported WSMV.
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