Country Comic, Singer Archie Campbell Dies

Country comedian Archie Campbell, who played the cigar-chomping barber on television’s “Hee Haw” program, died Saturday of kidney problems and other complications from a heart attack he suffered in June. He was 72.

Campbell was a Grand Ole Opry member and star of the “Hee-Haw” show. Born in Bulls Gap, Tenn., he originally wanted to be a painter, but became a singer and country comedian.

While his paintings of East Tennessee scenes won praise from critics, Campbell was better known as the barber who recited a country bumpkin form of Pig Latin called “spoonerisms” on television.

Campbell, juxtaposing the letters in phrases of popular nursery rhymes and fairy tales, created the “Pee Little Thrigs,” “Beeping Sleuty” and “Rindercella.”

After service in the Navy in World War II, Campbell moved to Knoxville and began practicing his skills as an entertainer, first appearing on a popular radio show called the “Midday Merry-Go-Round.”

He later had his own radio and TV show and was credited with launching the careers of such country music legends as guitarist Chet Atkins, Carl Smith and Flatt and Scruggs.