Country singer Jody Miller, one of Oklahoma's first Grammy winners, dies

One of the first Oklahomans to win a Grammy Award, country music singer Jody Miller died Thursday in her hometown of Blanchard surrounded by her family.

Miller, who was 80, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease seven years ago.

From small-town Oklahoma, the "Queen of the House" hitmaker's more than six-decade music career took her on tour with the Beach Boys, to George H.W. Bush's presidential inauguration and to the podium at the 1966 Grammy Awards, where she cracked up comedian Jerry Lewis.

Except for eight years in Los Angeles, Miller made her home in Blanchard from the time she was a little girl who took the bus to live with her grandma after her parents' divorce.

More:John Fullbright talks intimidating songs, making new album in 'golden' studio

Future country star moved from California to rural Oklahoma as a girl

The future country star was born Myrna Joy Miller Nov. 29, 1941, into a transplanted Oklahoma family that moved West in the 1930s, according to Hugh Foley's "Oklahoma Music Guide." She was born during a stopover in Phoenix, Arizona, during the family's trek to Oakland, California.

Her's was a musical family: Her father, a mechanic, would make and play fiddles, her mother would sing, and she would harmonize along with her four older sisters.

Miller was just 8 years old when she rode a Greyhound bus from California to her new home in Blanchard after her parents split.

“I couldn't believe what I saw when I got here. They didn't have any paved streets. Everything was dusty,” Miller told The Oklahoman in a 2018 interview. “I've been treated so nice. Very friendly people, wonderful people to help you out.”

The 1959 Blanchard graduate knew from the time she was 10 that she wanted to be a singer.

“I started out as a folk singer ... and what got me into country music, actually, was that Grammy," she told The Oklahoman.

Fellow Oklahoman Dale Robertson helped launch Jody Miller's career

Miller was crooning in a Norman coffeehouse when The Limeliters came to town, and band member Lou Gottlieb told her he could get her booked in Los Angeles.

She said she was more interested in marrying Monty Brooks, but after they wed, the couple went to California.

On her husband's advice, she contacted Western actor Dale Robertson, a fellow Oklahoman known for his roles on the television series "Tales of Wells Fargo" and "Iron Horse." Robertson had ties to Brooks' family, and he helped get Miller an audition with Capitol Records.

“It's a Cinderella story. ... I got in L.A. and I had been married six months. It was in the summer of '62, and by that next year, I had a contract with Capitol,” said Miller, who was married to Brooks for 52 years, until his death in 2014.

With the new, folky stage name of Jody Miller, she was touring Hawaii with the Beach Boys, playing TV shows alongside the Rolling Stones, and had then-session players Glen Campbell and fellow Okie Leon Russell working on her records.

“By the time I cut my first LP with Capitol, folk music was on its way out," she said.

More:12 Oklahoma autumn road trips, from fall foliage to Route 66 landmarks you should take

Country singer won a Grammy for her answer song to a Roger Miller hit

In a way, it was yet another Oklahoma star — coincidentally also one by the name of Miller — who helped her win a Grammy and embark on a country music career. 

In 1965, Capitol tapped Jody Miller to cut “Queen of the House,” an answer song to fellow Okie Roger Miller's now-iconic smash “King of the Road."

“It was instant airplay. We sold a lot of records. They actually couldn't make ‘em fast enough to sell. So, it was a giant hit for me," she told The Oklahoman.

At the 1966 Grammys, where she was also nominated for Best New Artist, Miller won Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female for “Queen of the House.”

“At the time, it really didn't have much of an effect on me. ... Maybe it's because the Grammys were only (a few) years old at the time. But nowadays, it means a lot for them to introduce me as ‘Grammy Award winner Jody Miller,'" Miller told The Oklahoman in 2018.

That same night, Roger Miller won six Grammys for "King of the Road" and the album that spawned it, "The Return of Roger Miller."

When Lewis presented her with her Grammy, Miller said she managed to unintentionally crack him up with her acceptance speech.

“I immediately thought of all the people that helped me in my career. So, I said, ‘Well, I just want to thank everybody that knows who they are.' And Jerry Lewis just died out laughing. He goes, ‘Can I use that?' and I said, ‘Yeah, but I don't know what was funny about it,'” she recalled.

U.S. President George H.W. Bush was one of Jody Miller's fans

As Miller's daughter, Robin, got closer to school age, she wanted to move back home. So, eight years after moving to L.A., the family returned to Blanchard.

“I wasn't quitting my career, but I just wanted her to go to school here,” Miller said. “I'm glad we did because she thrived here.”

Although she spent a few years in semi-retirement, Miller continued in the music business for more than 60 years. In 1970, she signed as a country artist to Epic Records, and she scored a string of hits and another Grammy nomination for her remake of the Chiffons' “He's So Fine.”

In 1987, she independently released an album of patriotic music, and through it, she learned she had a future U.S. president as a fan.

“The cassette found its way into the hands of the George (H.W.) Bush campaign people,” she said. “I got invited to the inauguration. I sang at one of the balls. I got to watch George and Barbara dance.”

In 1993, Miller submitted her life to Christ and recorded her first gospel album, establishing yet another phase of her career, this time as a Christian artist.

“It's the gift that I've been given, to sing,” she told The Oklahoman. “I think my Lord deserves recognition for that ... so I love to use that gift.”

Grammy winner continues to be honored in her Oklahoma hometown

In 2016, Gov. Mary Fallin declared July 29 Jody Miller Day, and the singer celebrated the date every year with concerts at Blanchard's Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, where she was a member for 50 years, until the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed live performances.

Miller was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2018, when she headlined an all-woman class that included fellow Okies Gayla Peevey, Katrina Elam, Gail Davies, Kellie Coffey, Susie McEntire and more.

In recent years, she formed the trio Three Generations with her daughter, Robin Brooks, and grandson, Montana Sullivan.

She and her friend and fellow Oklahoma music icon Wanda Jackson also became honorary spokeswomen for the SHINE (Start Helping Impacted Neighborhoods Everywhere) Foundation, an outgrowth of a community service program Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan founded.

“Any nonprofit could never hope to have any two better spokespersons," Maughan told The Oklahoman in 2018. I've gotten to meet quite a few stars, but not all of them are as great once you get to meet them. But Wanda and Jody are just as great when you get to know them as you might think they are."

Blanchard is now a growing stop on U.S. 62, with a sign declaring it the home of Jody Miller, a street named in her honor and a cabinet in the Betty Binyon Lewis Alumni Center full of memorabilia from her music career.

Last fall, she participated in the groundbreaking for the Jody Miller Performing Arts Center, a 1,000-seat facility in Blanchard that is being built as part of a public school bond package.

“She's definitely an icon around Blanchard,” Diana Bewley, executive secretary of the Blanchard Alumni Association, told The Oklahoman in 2018. "Everybody knows who she is, from the young ones to the old ones.”

Services are pending.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Singer Jody Miller, one of Oklahoma's first Grammy winners, dies