Do not Contact Me singer and Grammy winner Jeannie Seely handed away on Friday, August 1, 2025. The 85-year-old singer and performer’s passing got here lower than a yr after she buried her husband, Eugene Ward, in December 2024, after dropping him to most cancers. Since then, the late singer has reportedly been battling well being points to the day of her passing.
Her consultant confirmed the information of her loss of life to Folks Journal and shared her reason behind loss of life. Jeannie Seely reportedly handed away whereas at Summit Medical Middle in Hermitage, Tennessee. She was on the hospital due to problems from an intestinal an infection.
Earlier than that, she underwent a few emergency surgical procedures and spent a while within the ICU. In Could 2025, the Grand Ole Opry legend opened up about her well being battles in a press release shared with Folks. She stated that he had a number of again surgical procedures in March, and the next month, in April, she needed to get two emergency stomach surgical procedures.
After the surgical procedures, Jeannie Seely needed to keep within the ICU for eleven days, however her well being scare did not finish there. She additionally suffered a bout of pneumonia after. Nevertheless, in her Could assertion, she was in her restoration course of and has began to concentrate on her future, together with plans to launch new music. Whereas she admitted that “rehab is fairly robust,” she additionally stated that days are wanting “brighter.”
Jeannie Seely was honored for probably the most performances on the Opry in 2022
Jeannie Seely is famously often called a devoted member of the Grand Ole Opry, and the nation music’s greatest stage has at all times been her greatest want. Born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1940, Seely was the youngest of 4 kids, and listening to the Grand Ole Opry reveals on Saturday nights has been a part of her childhood.
In 2022, Jeannie Seely advised People who she had at all times recognized what she needed to be or the place she needed to be when she grew up. She stated:
“Really, I knew at 8 years outdated what I needed to be. And I knew I needed to be on the Opry… I needed to be part of that household that I heard each week.”
From acting on the native radio when she was 11 to changing into a secretary at Imperial Data, the late nation singer additionally ventured into songwriting. She wrote songs for varied artists, together with co-writing Anybody Who Is aware of What Love Is (Will Perceive) with Randy Newman for Irma Thomas.
What bought her an invitation to carry out on the Opry, nonetheless, was the success of he 1966 hit, Do not Contact Me. The observe was profitable on the charts, with the track hitting the No.2 spot on the US Scorching Nation Songs, and earned her a few Grammy nominations. By the next yr, in 1967, Jeannie Seely was inducted as a member.
She turned the primary girl to turn into a daily host of Opry segments and the primary one to put on a miniskirt onstage on the Opry. By 2022, she made one other historical past by making probably the most appearances, a complete of 5,397, within the Grand Ole Opry’s 110-year historical past.
The Grand Ole Opry on Saturday, August 2, 2025, will likely be devoted to Jeannie Seely, per Folks.
Edited by Tiasha
