Tanya's Father Passes Away

 

Tanya Tucker's father, Beau Tucker, dies on Thanksgiving

By MITCHELL KLINE
Staff Writer
ARRINGTON COMMUNITY - Beau Tucker, father of Country singer and reality TV star Tanya Tucker, died yesterday, according to the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office.
Emergency medical crews were called to Beau Tucker’s home on Cox Road, where they discovered he was not breathing. Corporal Chuck Norman said Beau Tucker was transported by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Beau Tucker was instrumental in his daughter's success as a singer, according to biographies, including this one posted on Tanya Tucker’s official Web site:

"Tanya’s father, Beau Tucker, worked any job he could find to keep the family going. He was at various times a pilot, a prospector, and a heavy equipment operator. The Tuckers were living in Wilcox, Arizona when Tanya started singing at talent contests and appearing on the stage with visiting celebrities like Mel Tillis and Ernest Tubb. Then, while Beau was working on a pipeline in St. George, Utah, Tanya landed a part in Robert Redford’s film, "Jeremiah Johnson." It didn’t turn out to be a show business break, but it helped convince Beau Tucker that stardom was possible, even if you had no industry contacts.

"The family later moved to Las Vegas to be closer to an entertainment center. It was there that patrons of the local Vets club started calling Tanya “Little Miss Cheatin’ Heart” because of her years-ahead-of-her-time vocal delivery. The Tuckers traveled to Nashville only to be met by closed doors and “come back when she’s older” comments."

Tanya was thirteen when a Las Vegas songwriter introduced her to legendary record producer Billy Sherrill. He soon signed her to Columbia Records and recorded the first big hit song: “Delta Dawn.” Tanya followed that with “Love’s the Answer” and “Jamestown Ferry,” then came out of the chute with another megahit: “What’s Your Mama’s Name?” She was fifteen years old, with a Country Music Association and Grammy nomination, a Greatest Hits package in the works, and her face on the cover of the Rolling Stone. "

 

 

Tanya Tucker’s father dies of lung cancer at Arrington home


By BEVERLY KEEL
Staff Writer
ARRINGTON COMMUNITY — Jessie M. “Beau” Tucker, a country music manager who was the guiding force in his daughter Tanya Tucker’s career, died Thursday after battling lung cancer.

“He gave it a real gallant effort and did lots of radiation and chemo, but finally succumbed to the dreaded disease that is afflicting so many in our lifetime,” Laura Lacy, Tanya’s assistant and publicist, said today. Beau Tucker, 79, died sometime during the night.

Emergency crews were called to Beau Tucker’s home on Cox Road in southeastern Williamson County, where they discovered he was not breathing, according to Corporal Chuck Norman of the Williamson County Sheriff's Department. Responders continued CPR on him until he was officially declared dead.

No funeral arrangements have been made.

 

“Beau was driven and committed to Tanya and contributed greatly to her career,” said Bill Carter, a lawyer and manager who managed Tanya during the 1970s. “Especially when she was young, he traveled with her, was there with her all the time, and made it possible for a 13-year-old to have a career. Years later, he has always been there for her. “Beau devoted his entire life to Tanya,” Carter said. “He and his wife both were always there for her. He went beyond being a parent, but he was there in troubled times, like during the Glen Campbell relationship,” Carter said of Tanya’s highly publicized and extremely volatile relationship with the country singer. “Beau was always there to pick up the pieces.”

During the 1960s, Beau, then a construction worker in Southwest cities such as Seminole, Texas, and Wilcox, Ariz., encouraged Tanya’s singing career after he and his wife, Juanita, discovered their 6-year-old’s impressive singing abilities. After moving to Phoenix in 1967, Beau began booking Tanya to open for country stars such as Ernest Tubb and Little Jimmy ####, who were appearing at local fairs. (He would also drive her bus as her career progressed.) He made tapes of Tanya singing in their living room when she was 9 but couldn’t get anyone interested. He moved the family to Phoenix, where she appeared on a children’s television program, and then to Utah, where she landed a small role in the 1972 Robert Redford movie “Jeremiah Johnson.” The family eventually moved to Henderson, Nev., near Las Vegas, to help Tanya’s career. “He moved to Las Vegas to gamble to get enough money to launch her career,” said Chet Flippo, CMT’s editorial director who wrote the now-famous Rolling Stone cover on Tanya in 1974. “She was pretty much his Job One. “He was extremely proud of her and very protective. Obviously his managerial skills were self-learned, but I think he did a lot to launch her. Obviously Tanya was his life’s work.” He financed Tanya’s demo tape in Vegas and gave it to actress/songwriter Dolores Fuller, which led to Billy Sherrill signing Tanya to Columbia and releasing her debut album, Delta Dawn, in 1972. Hit such as “What’s Your Mama’s Name” and “Blood Red and Goin’ Down” and “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone) followed. Tanya, 48, who is in Nashville, will fulfill her commitment to perform in Reno, Nev., on Saturday. “He would want her to work,” Lacy said. “He would want her to go ahead and do what she needed to do. This has been the dynamic for 40 years. It was so much about work and the management relationship they had. Although it was father and daughter, it was a lot about business, too.”