For more than 66 years, Little Jimmy Dickens belonged to the Grand Ole Opry. He was its smallest star, its oldest member and, by most accounts, its biggest heart. He never really left the stage, and in the end, the Opry audience was among the very first to hear that he had gone.
Little but loud
James Cecil Dickens was born on December 19, 1920, in Bolt, West Virginia, into a coal-mining family. He stood just 4-foot-11, and he never minded. He turned it into part of his act. One of his early hits was even called “I’m Little But I’m Loud.” He liked to introduce himself with a joke about being Willie Nelson after taxes.
Hank Williams gave him the nickname “Tater,” after his song “Take an Old Cold Tater (And Wait).” His other hits included “A-Sleepin’ at the Foot of the Bed,” “Out Behind the Barn,” “Country Boy” and his only No. 1, the 1965 novelty song “May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose.” George Jones admired him so much that he recorded a whole album in his honor, George Jones Sings Like the Dickens!
Jimmy joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1948 and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1983. He loved trading jokes with younger stars. In 2008, he climbed a step ladder on the Opry stage to look 6-foot-6 Trace Adkins in the eye, then joked that Adkins was so tall that if he fell down, he would be halfway home when he got up. In his later years, he became a familiar face in Brad Paisley’s music videos and comedy bits.
He never lost his love for the show. In one of his last interviews, he said he looked forward from one weekend to the next to getting back on the Opry stage and entertaining people who had traveled from all over to hear country music.
One more birthday show
Jimmy turned 94 on December 19, 2014. The next night, December 20, he took the Opry stage as part of his birthday celebration. Bill Anderson introduced him. Jimmy sang “Out Behind the Barn” and delivered his trademark jokes.
Anderson later remembered that the last time Jimmy walked off into the wings, the audience was standing up for him.
Christmas Day
Five days later, on Christmas Day, Jimmy suffered a stroke and was taken to a Nashville hospital in critical condition. For a few days, there was hope. Pete Fisher, the Opry’s vice president and general manager, visited him and reported that he was showing some improvement.
But on the afternoon of Friday, January 2, 2015, Little Jimmy Dickens died of cardiac arrest. He was 94.
The crowd at the Ryman
Every January, the Opry returns to its old home, the Ryman Auditorium. That Friday night, fans were filling the wooden pews for the show when Pete Fisher stepped out to give them the news. The audience was stunned. Fisher dedicated the night’s show to Jimmy, calling him one of the most legendary, entertaining and beloved artists in country music history.
Bill Anderson, who had introduced Jimmy at his last appearance just two weeks earlier, said that while he was on stage that night, he glanced toward the side of the stage and half expected to see Jimmy standing there in his little blue rhinestone suit. Marty Stuart noted that Jimmy had been the last performer who could reach all the way back to Hank Williams and Roy Acuff.
“We’ll take it from here, little buddy”
On January 8, friends, family and fans filled the Grand Ole Opry House for a celebration of his life. Fans drove in from as far as Kansas City and waited outside in single-digit temperatures for the doors to open. Brad Paisley presided over the two-hour service. Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill sang “Go Rest High on That Mountain.” Gill summed up Jimmy’s long life with a smile:
“Evidently the greatest of all live to be 94 and sing two weeks before they pass on.”
Paisley performed “When I Get Where I’m Going” and reminded everyone that the building they were sitting in had been built, at least in part, by Jimmy Dickens.
Then, at the close, Paisley asked those in attendance to join in “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” He explained that it was Jimmy who had started the tradition of closing country music funerals with that song. Choking back tears, he said goodbye to his friend: at 94, Jimmy’s journey had ended, but they would take it from here.
Opry stars filled the stage, and the whole room sang. For years, Little Jimmy Dickens had helped send his friends home with that song. This time, they sang it for him.