Profile of Jan Howard on Famous Like Me

Jan Howard (born Lula Grace Johnson on March 13, 1930 in West Plains, Missouri) was one of the trail-blazing country music female vocalists of the 1960's.

Married for a number of years to country music songwriter Harlan Howard, Jan Howard recorded demo versions of songs he had written for female singers in the late 1950's. Her vocal talent lead to a career of her own as a singer. She had her first major hit in 1960 with "The One You Slip Around With", beating out another newcomer named Loretta Lynn for Billboard's most promising female vocalist award. After stints on Challenge Records and Capitol Records, Howard's career really took off when she signed with Decca Records in 1965. She enjoyed a number of major hits and received Grammy nominations for two of them as Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Evil on Your Mind" (1966) and "My Son" (1968). Other popular Howard songs included "Bad Seed" (1966), "Rock Me Back to Little Rock" (1970), and "Love is Like Spinning Wheel" (1972). Howard's duets with Bill Anderson were enormously popular and earned the duo several Country Music Association nominations and top ten hits including the number one "For Loving You" (1967).

She became an official member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1971, although she had been making fairly regular appearances there since 1959. Howard became the featured "girl singer" on Anderson's syndicated television show and road act. Devastated by the deaths of two of her three sons, Howard retreated from the spotlight for a period in the early 1970's and ended her association with Anderson. She later returned to recording and stage appearances and still enjoys an active career to the present. Howard published her autobiography in 1987 titled "Sunshine and Shadow". In 2002, Howard made her acting debut in the feature film "Changing Hearts" starring Faye Dunaway.

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