Biography
Born Lula Grace Johnson in West Plains, Missouri, Jan Howard ranked among country music’s leading female vocalists throughout the 1960s. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1953, where she met songwriter Harlan Howard and married him one month later. Harlan forwarded her demonstration recordings to multiple labels, opening doors that led her to provide vocals for Tex Ritter and Johnny Bond. Under the stage name Jan Howard she cut the 1959 single “Yankee Go Home.”
The couple settled in Nashville in 1960, and Jan soon performed on the Prince Albert portion of the Grand Ole Opry. They made the move permanent later that year. A duet pairing with Wynn Stewart yielded her debut solo release, “The One You Slip Around With,” which climbed to the Top 15; a follow-up duet with Stewart reached the Top 30. In 1962 she charted again with “I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again” and issued her self-titled album, though further chart success remained elusive while she maintained a busy touring schedule.
Her profile rose sharply two years later. Material from that era mirrored strains in her marriage, and in 1965 “What Makes a Man Wander?” peaked inside the Top 30. Later the same year she joined Bill Anderson’s touring troupe and television programs. Their 1966 collaborations produced the hits “I Know You’re Married (But I Love You Still)” and “Time Out.” Howard then reached the Top Five on her own with “Evil on Your Mind,” followed by “Bad Seed.” By year’s end the Anderson duet “For Loving You” delivered her sole number-one single.
In October 1968 Howard experienced a premonition that her oldest son had died in Vietnam, a tragedy that proved real; she soon issued the Top 15 single “My Son.” She became a Grand Ole Opry member in 1971, and two years later her youngest son took his own life. She later appeared on The Johnny Cash Show and logged three modest chart entries in 1977, among them “To Love a Rolling Stone.” In 1979 she and Tammy Wynette toured the United States and Great Britain. Howard released the album Tainted Love in 1984 and Life of a Country Girl Singer in 1987, the same year her best-selling autobiography Sunshine and Shadow appeared. She remarried in 1990 and remained a regular Opry performer until her death on March 28, 2020, at her home in Gallatin, Tennessee, at age 91.
The couple settled in Nashville in 1960, and Jan soon performed on the Prince Albert portion of the Grand Ole Opry. They made the move permanent later that year. A duet pairing with Wynn Stewart yielded her debut solo release, “The One You Slip Around With,” which climbed to the Top 15; a follow-up duet with Stewart reached the Top 30. In 1962 she charted again with “I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again” and issued her self-titled album, though further chart success remained elusive while she maintained a busy touring schedule.
Her profile rose sharply two years later. Material from that era mirrored strains in her marriage, and in 1965 “What Makes a Man Wander?” peaked inside the Top 30. Later the same year she joined Bill Anderson’s touring troupe and television programs. Their 1966 collaborations produced the hits “I Know You’re Married (But I Love You Still)” and “Time Out.” Howard then reached the Top Five on her own with “Evil on Your Mind,” followed by “Bad Seed.” By year’s end the Anderson duet “For Loving You” delivered her sole number-one single.
In October 1968 Howard experienced a premonition that her oldest son had died in Vietnam, a tragedy that proved real; she soon issued the Top 15 single “My Son.” She became a Grand Ole Opry member in 1971, and two years later her youngest son took his own life. She later appeared on The Johnny Cash Show and logged three modest chart entries in 1977, among them “To Love a Rolling Stone.” In 1979 she and Tammy Wynette toured the United States and Great Britain. Howard released the album Tainted Love in 1984 and Life of a Country Girl Singer in 1987, the same year her best-selling autobiography Sunshine and Shadow appeared. She remarried in 1990 and remained a regular Opry performer until her death on March 28, 2020, at her home in Gallatin, Tennessee, at age 91.
Albums
The Life Of A Country Girl Singer
2024
Evil On Your Mind
2009
Sincerely, Jan Howard
1974
Bill & Jan (Or Jan & Bill)
1972
The Real Me
1968
Lonely Country
1967
Singles
