Grand Ole Opry's Jim Ed Brown dies at 81

The smooth-voiced singer Jim Ed Brown, a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1963 and a 2015 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame, died Thursday.

He was 81.

Last September, he revealed he had been undergoing treatment for lung cancer. Earlier this year, Brown announced he was in remission, but on June 3, his daughter Kim posted on Facebook that her father's cancer had returned — though not in his lungs — and that he had resumed chemotherapy.

One day later, when Mr. Brown's condition appeared unlikely to improve, his friend and fellow country legend Bill Anderson visited Brown in his hospital room to present him with a Country Music Hall of Fame medallion, five months ahead of the official induction ceremony.

James Edward Brown was born April 1, 1934, in Sparkman, Ark.; later, the Brown family of seven would move to Pine Bluff, Ark. Growing up, he'd listen to Opry stars such as Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe, and he would sing with his older sister Maxine and younger sister Bonnie.

In 1954, Brown and Maxine, who had been singing on the radio and performing regionally as a duo, signed a deal with Fabor Records. Their debut single, the lighthearted Looking Back to See, peaked at No. 8 in June that year. The young singers soon became regulars on The Louisiana Hayride and Ozark Jubilee.

In 1955, Bonnie, a teenager then, joined the group. A year later, The Browns' recording of I Take the Chance for their label RCA Victor hit No. 2 on the country charts. One of their best-known songs was I Heard the Bluebirds Sing, a song released in 1957, the same year Brown was drafted into military service. He continued to record with his sisters while on leave, and when the group toured, their sister Norma would take his place.

After two years, Brown left the military and rejoined the family band. They would release their smash hit The Three Bells in August 1959. It spent 10 weeks atop the country chart and four weeks atop the pop charts. It even cracked the Hot R&B Sides Top 10.

The Browns' timeless version of this song would go on to sell more than 1 million records. Subsequent recordings Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair) and The Old Lamplighter were also crossover hits; however, the former would be the group's final Top 10 country single.

The Browns were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1963. They would disband four years later when Maxine and Bonnie decided to retire from the trio.

In 1965, Brown began to make solo records for RCA Victor, where he'd remain for the next 16 years. In 1967, he'd release what would become his signature song: the Nat Stuckey-penned Pop a Top, which spent 20 weeks on the charts. He'd go on to release several other successful singles, including Morning (#4, 1970) and Southern Loving (#6, 1973).

During the mid-1970s, Brown, in between hosting multiple seasons of the television program Nashville on the Road, began to record duets with Helen Cornelius. The pair won the 1977 CMA Vocal Duo Award thanks to hits such as the 1976 chart-topper I Don't Want to Have to Marry You and Saying Hello, Saying I Love You, Saying Goodbye, which reached No. 2. They released their last charting single, Don't Bother to Knock, in 1981.

Brown returned to television in the 1980s, hosting You Can Be a Star for six years and co-hosting a travel program, Going Our Way, with his wife Becky. Though he did not release any studio albums during these years, he continued to tour and perform on the Opry.

In January, at age 80, Brown released his first album in 35 years, In Style Again, for Plowboy Records. Despite his age and health, Brown was in fine vocal form on this project, singing with Cornelius and his sisters in addition to Vince Gill and The Whites. At the end of the month, he returned to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.

In late March, it was announced that Brown, along with his two sisters, were going to be officially inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. At the podium, an emotional Brown began his remarks by telling the audience he was cancer-free. During an interview, he remarked that one of the most meaningful aspects of his induction was that "my family, friends and fans (will) always have a place to go and remember me. I'll be there forever."

Two weeks ago, Whispering Bill Anderson was told The Browns had asked that he be the Hall of Fame member to induct them into the Country Music Hall of Fame at the ceremony in the fall. Then he got a call Thursday morning saying Brown's induction needed to happen that day. He canceled a doctor's appointment and joined a group of people, including the Country Music Association's chief executive officer Sarah Trahern, in Brown's hospital room to surprise him with his commemorative Hall of Fame medallion.

"Jim Ed was pretty emotional," Anderson recalled. "He was very lucid. He laughed and he cried, and you could tell just how proud he was."

Brown took his ball cap off and Anderson slipped the medallion over his head, around his neck and laid it on his chest in the hospital room — he was officially a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

"He was tearing up and so was I and so was everybody in the room," Anderson said. "He said, 'I had about convinced myself that even if I don't make the Hall of Fame, I've had a pretty good run. But to wear this medallion and know that I made it to the Hall of Fame makes it perfect.'"

Brown was short of breath and on oxygen. Anderson leaned over his hospital bed as his friend wondered whether he would be able to sing when he got to heaven because couldn't sing in his condition at that time.

"I said, 'Well, Jim Ed, if you get up there and find you can't sing, no worries,'" Anderson recalled. "I'll loan you my license to whisper. You can steal my act until I get there.' He started laughing, and he laughed until tears were running down his face."

Then, just like how The Country Music Hall of Fame ends each induction ceremony, Anderson started singing Will the Circle Be Unbroken — just the chorus, he said. Brown's other guests joined in.

"It was sad but in a beautiful way because we were making him happy," Anderson said.

Brown leaves behind Becky, his wife of 52 years, and his son and daughter. Funeral arrangements are unknown at this time.