By the Associated Press’s Maria Sherman
NEW YORK (AP) The lovely country music vocalist who created hits like “Don’t Touch Me,” Jeannie Seely, passed away. She was eighty-five.
According to Don Murry Grubbs, her publicist, she passed away on Friday due to complications resulting from an intestinal ailment.
Celebrated for her bold nonconformity and a series of indisputable singles in the 1960s and 1970s, Seely was a trailblazer for women in country music and was known as Miss Country Soul for her distinctive singing style.
Gene Ward, her second husband, passed away in December. Seely disclosed in May that she was recuperating from eleven days in the intensive care unit, two emergency procedures, and numerous back surgeries. She had a case of pneumonia as well.
Although rehab is quite difficult, things are getting better every day, and last night I noticed a glimmer of hope. I knew it was mine because it was neon! In a statement at the time, she claimed. Seely, the unstoppable, is making her way back.
Seely grew up in the neighboring town of Townville after being born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in July 1940, almost two hours north of Pittsburgh. Her father played the banjo, and her mother sang, so she fell in love with country music right away. She performed on local television shows and sang on local radio shows when she was younger. She relocated to Los Angeles in her early twenties in order to launch her career, accepting positions at Hollywood’s Liberty and Imperial Records.
She continued to record and write. Next came Nashville, where she signed a record deal with Monument Records after singing on Porter Wagoner’s show. Soon after, Hank Cochran’s crossover ballad, “Don’t Touch Me,” would become her biggest hit. In the category of best country and western vocal performance for females, the song won Seely’s first and only Grammy Award.
After getting married in 1969, Cochran and Seely were divorced in 1979.
Known for wearing a miniskirt on the Grand Ole Oprystage when it was still considered forbidden, Seely was a bit of a renegade who broke boundaries in her career at a time when country music demanded a certain level of subservience from its female singers.
In the 1960s and 1970s, she had several country hits, including three Top 10 hits on what is now known as Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart: Don’t Touch Me, I’ll Love You More (Than You Need) in 1967, and Can I Sleep In Your Arms? in 1973, which was adapted from the folk song Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?
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Seely has continued to put out albums, perform, and host in the years that have passed, frequently showing up on country music shows. Everyone from Ernest Tubb, Grandpa Jones, Little Jimmy Dickens, and Merle Haggard to Ray Price, Connie Smith, and others have recorded her tunes, which are regarded as classics.
Seely continued to work in the country music industry. She has been hosting the weekly Sundays with Seely show on the Willie Nelson’s Roadhouse SiriusXM channel since 2018. She was admitted into the Music City Walk of Fame that same year.
She has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1967 and has made about 5,400 appearances there. Grubbs said that Seely would be honored during Saturday’s Grand Ole Opry performance.
Her most recent single, a rendition of Dottie West’s “Suffertime,” which was recorded at the famed RCA Studio B, was released in July 2024. The previous year, she did it at the Opry.
