The Mouth of Mississippi, Jerry Clower

There may have been no more natural career progression for anyone, ever, than for the path of “The Mouth of Mississippi,” Jerry Clower, from fertilizer salesman to comedian. The small-town country boy became an entertainment icon, a star of radio, television, and stand-up, a Grand Old Opry member, and a best-selling author.

Howard Gerald Clower was born in Liberty City, MS, on September 28, 1926. His father was a railroad worker who left the family when Jerry was young. He and his brother Sonny were raised by his mom, Mable. Of his mother, he said, “I thank God for my mamma who taught me high moral standards, right from wrong, and that you gave a hard day’s work for a full day’s pay.”

As a 17-year-old single mother, she took her two boys to live on her father’s farm in Liberty, MS, where Clower worked until he joined the Navy the day after graduating high school.

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Clower served on the aircraft carrier Bennington in the Pacific theater in WWII. He was a radioman third class, earning three medals for his service. After the war’s conclusion and his discharge in 1946, Jerry returned to his home state and married Homerline Wells, his high school sweetheart. He attended Southwest Mississippi Junior and then earned a football scholarship to Mississippi State University. He earned a degree in agriculture there.

After completing his college career, Clower took a job as a county agent. His next stop was as a seed salesman, and then, the job that led to his entertainment career; fertilizer salesman for the Mississippi Chemical Corporation. There he started telling funny stories about his early life in an effort to boost his sales, and his plan was successful. His stories often featured the Ledbetter family, neighbors from his youth.

In 1970, a friend convinced Jerry to record an album of some of his stories. Clower was doing speaking engagements by then and took orders for his record at those appearances. The resulting record was “Jerry Clower From Yazoo City, Mississippi Talking.” the record sold 8,000 copies on the small Lemon label.

A copy of the record was sent to a deejay in Nashville who began playing it on WSM. Clower soon attracted the attention of MCA Records, who signed him to a contract and began distributing his album in 1971. It quickly became a gold record and stayed on the country charts for 30 weeks.

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Clower got his first chance to appear live in concert when he was given an opportunity to open for Charley Pride in Jacksonville. Clower was a hit with the audience, and he and Pride became close friends. He would go on to make 27 comedy albums.

In 1973, Clower made his first appearance at the Grand Old Opry. He would be a regular performer there for the remainder of his life. He was fond of telling listeners that he was “the only member that don’t pick or sing and has a degree in agriculture.” Also in 1973, Jerry began hosting a radio show, based in Nashville, called Country Crossroads, which he would continue for over twenty years. He added a country music-themed TV show in 1975.

Clower was proud of the ‘family-friendly” content of his material. He often said, “I’ve never made an album you couldn’t play in church.” He famously said, “Just about all of my stuff is all almost true,” Clower also wrote four books, one that was made into a documentary, “Ain’t God Good.”

Clower’s six-foot, 270-pound frame added to his jolly image. Sports Illustrated writer Roy Blount once said of Clower, “He looks like John Wayne from the eyes up and Buddy Hackett from the cheekbones down.

There was much more to Clower than his humor. In a column after his death, long-term Mississippi writer Sid Salter said of Clower, “No one will ever be able to count the money he raised for others, the time he donated to charitable and church causes, the personal acts of kindness and the money he chose to forego simply to stick to his principles.”

Clower was also a Baptist preacher and considered a “goodwill ambassador” for his home state. He was a voice for the integration of Yazoo City’s public schools. He once made headlines for calling some of his fellow Baptists hypocrites for what he saw as racism, asking how they could “let God run every fiber of their being except how they treat blacks.”

Jerry Clower died in 1998 from complications after heart surgery. He had four children and seven grandchildren. There is a Jerry Clower Museum in East Fork, MS. Mississippi, erected a marker in his honor. A section of Mississippi Highway 24 is designated Jerry Clower Highway.

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