Eddie Dean was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 singer and actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 whom Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...

 and Gene Autry

Gene Autry

Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...

 termed the best cowboy

Cowboy

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 singer of all time. Dean was best known for "I Dreamed Of A Hill-Billy Heaven" (1955), which became an even greater hit in 1961 for Tex Ritter

Tex Ritter

Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...

.

Dean was born Edgar Dean Glossup in the rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 community of Posey in Hopkins County, Texas

Hopkins County, Texas

*Brashear*Dike*Como*Cumby*Gafford*Pickton*Saltillo*Sulphur Bluff*Sulphur Springs*Tira-See also:*National Register of Historic Places listings in Hopkins County, Texas-External links:*...

, northwest of Sulphur Springs

Sulphur Springs, Texas

Sulphur Springs is a city in Hopkins County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 14,551. It is the county seat of Hopkins County.-Geography:Sulphur Springs is located at ....

. His father was a teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, who encouraged Dean to launch a professional singing career. At the age of sixteen, Dean performed on the Southern gospel

Gospel

A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...

 circuit with the Vaughan and then the V.O. Stamps quartet

Quartet

In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...

s.

Dean and his brother, Jimmie Dean (not to be confused with Jimmy Dean

Jimmy Dean

Jimmy Ray Dean was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. Although he may be best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand, he became a national television personality starting in 1957, rising to fame for his 1961 country crossover hit "Big Bad...

, the country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 entertainer originally from Plainview, Texas

Plainview, Texas

Plainview is a city in and the county seat of Hale County, Texas, United States. The population was 22,336 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Plainview is located at ....

) moved to Chicago and performed together on WLS

WLS

WLS may refer to:* White light scanner, a device for measuring physical geometry* WLS , a radio station * WLS-FM, a radio station * WLS-TV, a television station...

 Radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

's National Barn Dance

National Barn Dance

National Barn Dance, broadcast by WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois starting in 1924, was one of the first American country music radio programs and a direct precursor of the Grand Ole Opry...

. They also did work from a radio station in Yankton

Yankton, South Dakota

Yankton is a city in, and the county seat of, Yankton County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 14,454 at the 2010 census. Yankton was the original capital of Dakota Territory. It is named for the Yankton tribe of Nakota Native Americans...

, South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

. In 1934, Dean appeared in his first film in the role of Sam in Manhattan Love Song. In 1937, Dean relocated to Hollywood, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, and began appearing in western film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s, often with Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 native Roscoe Ates

Roscoe Ates

Roscoe Ates was an actor and musician in primarily western films and television.-Early years:Ates was born in the rural hamlet of Grange, Mississippi, northwest of Hattiesburg. Grange is no longer included on road maps...

 (1894–1962) in the role of Soapy Jones. Many of Dean's early roles were uncredited.

Film and musical numbers

A partial listing of Dean's films and musical numbers includes:

• The Renegade Trail as Singing Cowboy "Red" (1939)
• Rolling Home to Texas as a sheriff
  Sheriff
  A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
  
   (1940)
• The Harmony Trail as Marshal Eddie Dean, his first starring role (1944)
• Wildfire as Sheriff Johnny Deal (1945); performing "On the Banks of the Sunny San Juan" and "By the Sleepy Rio Grande"
• Song of Old Wyoming
  Song of Old Wyoming
  - Cast :*Eddie Dean as Eddie*Sarah Padden as Kate 'Ma' Conway*Ian Keith as Lee Landow*Lash La Rue as Cheyenne Kid*Jennifer Holt as Vicky Conway, adopted*Emmett Lynn as Uncle Ezra*Robert Barron as Jesse Dixon*Gene Alsace as Henchman Ringo...
  
   as Himself (1945); performing "Hills of Old Wyoming", "My Herdin' Song", and "Wild Prairie Rose"
• Colorado Serenade" as Himself (1946); performing "Riding On Top of the Mountain", "Western Lullaby", "Ridin' Down To Rawhide", and "Home on the Range"
• Down Missouri Way as Himself (1946); performing "Old Missouri Hayride"
• Romance of the West" as Himself (1946); performing Ridin' the Trail To Dreamland", "Love Song of the Waterfall", and "Indian Dawn
• Tumbleweed Trail as Himself (1946); performing "Tumbleweed Trail", "Lonesome Cowboy", and "Careless Darlin'"
• Stars over Texas as Himself (1946); performing "Stars Over Texas", "Sands of the Old Rio Grande", and "Fifteen Hundred and One Miles of Texas"
• Range Beyond the Blue as Himself (1947); performing "West of the Pecos", "Range Beyond the Blue", and "Pony With the Uncombed Hair"
• Wild Country as Himself (1947); performing "Wild Country", "Saddle With a Golden Horn", and "Ain't No Gal Got a Brand On Me"
• The Westward Trail as Himself (1948); performing Cathy", "It's Courtin' Time", and "Westward Trail"
• The Tioga Kid as Clip Mason (1948); performing "Driftin' River", "Way Back In Oklahoma", "Ain't No Gal Got A Brand On Me"
• Black Hills as Himself (1948); performing "Black Hills", "Punchinello", and "Let's Go Sparkin'"

Dean also appeared in the Hopalong Cassidy

Hopalong Cassidy

Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character....

 adventure

Adventure

An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...

 film series.

Television

Dean, Ates, and Jan Sterling

Jan Sterling

Jan Sterling was an American actress.Most active in films during the 1950s, Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty , and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same performance...

 also appeared in the short-running ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 western, The Marshal of Gunsight Pass

The Marshal of Gunsight Pass

The Marshal of Gunsight Pass is a 1950 live broadcast western television series starring Russell Hayden , former Country music singer Eddie Dean , and Riley Hill as Marshal #1, Marshal #2, and Marshal #3, respectively. Hayden is not identified by a character name. Dean uses his own name in the...

, broadcast live in 1950 to West Coast stations from a primitive studio lot at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California. Dean was also featured in archival footage on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's The Gabby Hayes Show

The Gabby Hayes Show

The Gabby Hayes Show is a general purpose western television series in which the film star and Roy Rogers confidant, George "Gabby" Hayes , narrated each episode, showed clips from old westerns, or told tall tales for a primarily children's audience. The first Hayes program ran on NBC at 5:15 p.m...

.

Long after The Marshal of Gunsight Pass ended, Dean appeared as Trail Boss Tim in a 1962 television short called The Night Rider, with Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

 as Johnny Laredo and Dick Jones, originally from Snyder

Snyder, Texas

Snyder is a city in and the county seat of Scurry County, Texas, United States. The population was 10,653 at the 2010 census. It is located on Deep Creek, a minor tributary of the Colorado River of Texas. Snyder is approximately 150 km southeast of Lubbock.Located in Snyder is the Scurry County...

, Texas, as Billy Joe. Dean thereafter guest starred twice on
CBS's The Beverly Hillbillies

The Beverly Hillbillies

The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....

 sitcom with Buddy Ebsen

Buddy Ebsen

Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...

 in the 1963 episodes "Elly's Animals" and in the role of Sergeant Dean in "Jed Plays Solomon".

Musical career

During the 1930s

1930s

File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...

, Dean frequently sang on radio with Judy Canova

Judy Canova

Judy Canova , born Juliette Canova, was an American comedienne, actress, singer and radio personality. She appeared on Broadway and in films...

. Beginning in 1941, he recorded a string of singles for Standard, American Record Company, Just Film, Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

, and Radio Recorders. He joined Mercury Records in 1948, when he released "One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)," written with his wife, Lorene Donnelly Dean (October 4, 1911—July 12, 2002), whom he married in 1931 and called "Dearest". The song became Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

s No. 1 country hit as recorded by Jimmy Wakely

Jimmy Wakely

James Clarence Wakeley , better known as Jimmy Wakely, was an American country-Western singer and actor, one of the last crooning cowpokes following World War II...

 and, later, Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...

.

In 1955, Dean and Hal Southern released "Hill-Billy Heaven". Southern claimed that a dream inspired the song and that the name of the song is derived from the nickname that a West Coast disc jockey

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

, Squeakin' Deacon Moore, had given to Bell Gardens

Bell Gardens, California

Bell Gardens is a city in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 42,072 at the 2010 census, down from 44,054 at the 2000 census.Bell Gardens is notable for being one of only five Los Angeles County cities to permit casino gambling...

, California, because of its considerable number of country music fans.

Dean continued recording for small labels and was a founder of the Academy of Country Music

Academy of Country Music

The Academy of Country Music was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Whereas the Country Music Association, founded in 1958, was based in Nashville, the Academy sought to promote country music in the western states. Among those involved in the...

.
One of Eddie's last records, recorded in the 1990s and released on The Bradlley Brothers record label was a country song entitled 'Cold Texas Beer' which harkened back to Eddie's West Texas roots. The song was written especially for him by Bill Aken (The Hall Of Fame Guitarist), the adopted son of actors Frank and Lupe Mayorga who had worked in a few films with Eddie in the 1940s. Eddie had asked Bill to write him a new song and 'Cold Texas Beer' was written in less than two days and tailored specifically to Eddie's vocal style.

He was also a member of the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Western Music Association

Western Music Association

The Western Music Association was incorporated in 1989 to promote and preserve western music in its traditional, historical, and contemporary forms....

 Hall of Fame. Two weeks after his death, his star was added to the Palm Springs

Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...

 Walk of Stars. Dean is represented on albums "Eddie Dean In Concert" (also on video) on the BGR label and "Eddie Dean Collectors' Edition" on Simitar Records.
Dean had album released in the mid-1950s on Sage & Sand records entitled "Hi - Country" It featured a few hit's including "Way Out Yonder"

Dean's legacy

Ronnie Pugh, research librarian at the Country Music Foundation and Hall of Fame, evaluated the Dean legacy accordingly: "Eddie and his brother were one of the first brother acts back in the 1930s. Then, he was a pioneer of the real smooth singing style. Finally, his enduring contribution to country music will be his songwriting."

Longtime manager Don Bradley said that Dean's legacy will be "his music. He never had the promotion and marketing that Roy and Gene had because he and Dearest always did all of their own business. But Eddie was one of the finest singers the good Lord ever made. And he was a great writer. He wrote 80 percent of all the music in his movies."

Dean died at the age of ninety-one of emphysema

Emphysema

Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...

 in Westlake Village

Westlake Village, California

Westlake Village is a planned community that straddles the Los Angeles and Ventura county line. The eastern portion is the incorporated city Westlake Village, located on the western edge of Los Angeles County, California. The city, located in the region known as the Conejo Valley, encompasses half...

 in Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County, California

Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...

, which is near Thousand Oaks

Thousand Oaks, California

Thousand Oaks is a city in southeastern Ventura County, California, in the United States. It was named after the many oak trees that grace the area, and the city seal is adorned with an oak....

 in Ventura County

Ventura County, California

Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...

. In addition to his wife, he was survived by a son, Ed Dean, and a daughter, Donna Dean Douglas, not to be confused with The Beverly Hillbillies co-star Donna Douglas

Donna Douglas

Donna Douglas is an American actress best known for her role as Elly May Clampett, in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies.-Early life:...

, on whose series Dean made his last television appearances.

The Deans are interred in the Gethsemane plot of Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village. The headstone reads "Glosup" at the top with "Eddie Dean" and "Dearest Dean" below.