Minnie Pearl; Star of Grand Ole Opry

Minnie Pearl, whose cornball humor and homespun manner made her a favorite during more than 50 years in the Grand Ole Opry county music show, died Monday. She was 83.

Pearl, who also spent 20 years on the syndicated television show “Hee Haw,” gave up performing five years ago after suffering a stroke. She died Monday night after another stroke, according to a spokeswoman at Columbia Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, where she had been admitted a week ago.

Known for her trademark gingham dress and straw hat with its $1.98 price tag dangling, Pearl always greeted the Opry crowd and the live cable television audience with her standard salutation: “Howwww-deeeee! I’m just glad to be here!”

Away from the stage, Pearl was the antithesis of the wide-eyed hayseed character she created. She was a leading member of Nashville society, a cultured, articulate woman who read the New York Times every day. She was married to her manager and their tastefully decorated house was next door to the governor’s mansion.

She was born Sarah Ophelia Cannon in Centerville, Tenn., the youngest of five daughters. But, for comic effect, she told audiences that she was from Grinder’s Switch, which was a railroad station near her hometown. Grinder’s Switch, she joked, is so small, “you don’t read the paper to find out who is doing what--you already know that--but to find out if they got caught.”

Her father, who owned a thriving lumber business, had the town’s best-stocked library. Her parents stressed the value of education and frequently corrected their children when they made grammatical errors.

After high school, she enrolled at Ward-Belmont College, a finishing school in Nashville, and majored in drama. She planned to become a serious actress, and later performed with a production company that produced amateur plays in the rural South.

She created the Minnie Pearl character after boarding with an old woman in a mountain farm cabin in northern Alabama. She began imitating the woman, who had raised 16 children, helped her husband with the crops and still managed to maintain a sense of humor. She named her new persona Minnie Pearl because “everyone has a cousin or an aunt named Minnie or Pearl,” she said.

While touring with the acting company, she began performing as Minnie Pearl, and the Grand Ole Opry radio show asked her to audition. She made her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry program in 1940 at a time when it was unheard of for a woman to do stand-up comedy. She also sang and played the piano, but she was best known for her humor.

She toured with the biggest stars in country music, including her close friend, Roy Acuff.

“I have no intention of retiring as long as I have my health,” she said in a 1987 interview. “I’d like to go out with my hat on with the price tag.”

In 1975, Pearl was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. She was voted Country Music Woman of the Year in 1966 by the Country Music Assn.

Eleven years ago, she was found to have cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. She recovered and continued to perform and do volunteer work for the American Cancer Society. She received the American Cancer Society’s Courage Award in 1987.

She was among 13 recipients of a National Medal of Art in 1992.

Times wire services contributed to this story.