Jeannie Seely, the Grammy-winning singer of “Don’t Touch Me” and country music icon, has died. She was 85.
Seely died peacefully Friday afternoon at Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tennessee, as a result of complications from an intestinal infection, her reps confirmed to Entertainment Weekly.
Since last fall, Seely had been battling a number of health issues, including undergoing multiple back surgeries this spring for vertebrae repairs, as well as two emergency abdominal surgeries.
Nevertheless, Seely performed at the Grand Ole Opry earlier this year on Feb. 22, which marked her 5,397th Opry performance, more than any other artist in the institution’s 100-year history.
Known as “Miss Country Soul” for her soul-inspired vocals, Seely first broke through with the 1966 single “Don’t Touch Me,” which rose to No. 2 on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart. Other charting songs included “A Wanderin’ Man” (1967), “I’ll Love You More (Than You’ll Need)” (1968), and her duet with Jack Greene “Wish I Didn’t Have to Miss You,” the latter of which peaked at No. 2 on the US country chart in 1969.
The singer-songwriter was born on July 6, 1940, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and was raised on a farm outside of nearby Townville. She first became interested in country music while listening to her family’s big Philco console radio, which she constantly had tuned to the Grand Ole Opry on radio station WSM 650. She first started singing herself at age 11, as part of a Saturday morning radio show, and by the time she was 16, she’d graduated to performing on a local TV station.
She eventually moved to Los Angeles and got her foot in the door by working as a secretary at Liberty and Imperial Records in Hollywood. There, she started writing songs for Four Star Music and became a regular performer on the TV series Hollywood Jamboree. Her songwriting eventually landed her a recording contract with Challenge Records, which resulted in a few regional hits and a West Coast tour.
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Singer and Opry member Jeannie Seely performs at The Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium in Nov. 2014
In 1964, Seely received the Most Promising Female Artist award from an organization that would later become known as the Academy of Country Music. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Nashville and signed with Monument Records, where her career really took off with the aforementioned “Don’t Touch Me.” With the song, she won the Grammy for Best Country & Western Vocal Performance – Female, becoming only the third female country artist to receive a Grammy at the time.
She was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in Sept. 1967, and was the first woman to regularly host Opry segments. From there, Seely and Greene began their very successful duet partnership in the late ’60s, and toured together for the next decade. But, she continued to release singles on her own as well, including the popular “Can I Sleep in Your Arms” (1973) and “Lucky Ladies” (1974).
In the ’90s and early aughts, Seely released several more solo albums, including a Christmas album in 1994 called Number One Christmas. Her final studio album was 2020’s An American Classic. In total, she released 17 studio albums, four compilation albums, one soundtrack album, four music videos, and 36 singles.
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Jeannie Seely
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In addition to her recording career, Seely also appeared in the Willie Nelson film Honeysuckle Rose, played Mrs. Jenkins in the 2002 film Changing Hearts, and she starred in stage productions including Always, Patsy Cline; The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas; Could It Be Love; and more. She also published her own book in 1988 titled Pieces of a Puzzled Mind.
Seely is survived by numerous friends, family members, and her special cat, Corrie. Her husband, Gene Ward, died of cancer in December. Saturday’s Grand Ole Opry will be dedicated to Seely.
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