Country music star turned sausage pitchman Jimmy Dean has died

(HMG) – Jimmy Dean, a country music star who went on to launch a well-known brand of sausages, has died, at the age of 81 years old.Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  “Big Bad John,” a song performed by Dean and written by Dean and Roy Acuff, was a No. 1 hit on the country and pop charts in 1961 and won a Grammy. Dean had his own TV variety show titled “The Jimmy Dean Show” that ran from 1957-1958, and appeared in the 1971 James Bond movie “Diamonds are Forever.” He founded the Jimmy Dean Meat Company in the 1960s, and sold the company in 1984 to what became the Sara Lee Corporation, but remained its chairman and TV spokesperson.  Dean is survived by his wife, Donna Meade Dean.