Jan Howard born 13 March 1930

 

Lula Grace Johnson (born March 13, 1930), better known as Jan Howard, is an American country music singer and Grand Ole Opry star. She was one of country music's trailblazing female vocalists during the height of her career in the mid-1960s. Her ex-husband was singer-songwriter Harlan Howard.

Born Lula Grace Johnson in West Plains, Missouri, Jan was the eighth of eleven children, and times were tough as a child. Growing up poor on a farm, she had no desire to be a country music entertainer. No one knew she could really sing. She had the normal life of any child growing up in that time period. Helping out on the farm was only natural. By the time Jan was fifteen, she was married. She had three sons by the time she was twenty.

Once Jan divorced from her second husband, she decided she would try to get a fresh start by heading west to Los Angeles. Once there she took on a job as a waitress and a secretary. About a month after moving, Jan attended a wedding where one of the guests was an unknown, aspiring country music singer and songwriter named Harlan Howard. As soon as they met, they hit the floor running. After knowing each other for a month, Jan and Harlan headed for Las Vegas and were married. At this point, Harlan was writing songs and performing anywhere that would hear him play.

 One night as Jan was washing dishes, Harlan walked in and heard her singing. He liked her voice so much that he asked her to record some demo songs,which he sent to various companies. As a result she began singing demos for Tex Ritter and Johnny Bond. She recorded the original demo for "I Fall To Pieces" and the female verses for "Daddy Sang Bass" that went on to become a hit for Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. In 1959, using the pseudonym "Jan Howard," she recorded "Yankee Go Home."

 

In 1960, the Howards went to Nashville; there, Jan appeared on the Prince Albert Show segment of the Grand Ole Opry. Later that year, the Howards moved to Nashville permanently, where Jan's successful duet with Wynn Stewart resulted in her first solo single, "The One You Slip Around With," which made the Top 15; her next song, another duet with Stewart, reached the Top 30. She was awarded Billboard Magazine's Most Promising Country Female Award. In 1963, Jan had a top 40 hit with "I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again," and issued an eponymous album. Although she didn't do well on the charts, she continued to tour extensively.

 

Two years later her career finally caught fire. Her songs of the period reflected her troubled marriage; in 1965, she reached the Top 30 with "What Makes a Man Wander?" Later that year, Howard joined Bill Anderson's touring and television shows. In 1966, she and Anderson scored two hits with "In Know You're

Married (But I Love You Still)" and "Time Out." She then scored a Top Five hit with her solo "Evil on Your Mind. " Her next hit was "Bad Seed," and towards the end of the year, she had her only number one hit with "For Loving You," a duet with Anderson.

By 1968, her marriage with Harlan Howard had come to an end. During that same year, Howard dreamed that her eldest son had been killed in Vietnam, which turned out to be true; shortly thereafter, she released the Top 15 single "My Son." In 1971, Howard became a member of the Grand Ole Opry; two years later, her youngest son committed suicide. She joined the Johnny Cash Show and in 1977 had three minor hits, including "To Love A Rolling Stone." In 1979, she and Tammy Wynette embarked on a tour of the U.S. and Great Britain. In 1984, Howard released the album Tainted Love, followed by Life of a Country Girl Singer in 1987. The same year, she published her best-selling autobiography Sunshine and Shadow.

Howard remarried in 1990 and continues to remain an active member of the country music world and still performs as one of the Grand Ladies Of The Grand Ole Opry. (Info edited from AMG and countrymusic.about.com)

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