Jody Miller, the country hitmaker behind “Queen of the House,” has died at the age of 80
Miller earned 27 entries on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, including six top 10 singles.
Jody Miller, best known for her 1965 song “Queen of the House,” died on Thursday, Oct. 6, in Blanchard, Oklahoma, of Parkinson’s disease complications. Miller was 80 years old.
In 1962, the Oklahoma native signed with Capitol Records as a folk musician, and her debut album, Wednesday’s Child is Full of Woe, was released in 1963. In 1964, she had her first Billboard Hot 100 entry with “He Walks Like a Man.” A year later, Miller’s “Queen of the House,” a response to Roger Miller’s (no relation, though both performers, were raised in Oklahoma), became a crossover smash, hitting the top five on the Hot Country Singles chart and No. 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100. “Queen of the House” would earn Miller a Grammy win in the best country & western vocal performance-female category (she was also nominated for best new country & western artist that year) in 1966 (during that same ceremony, Roger Miller earned six Grammy wins for “King of the Road” and his album The Return of Roger Miller)
In the 1960s and 1970s, she ultimately placed 27 entries on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, including five top 5 hits such as “Baby I’m Yours,” “There’s a Party Goin’ On” and “Darling, You Can Always Come Back Home.” In the 1970s, Miller began recording for Epic Records in Nashville, working with renowned producer Billy Sherrill (George Jones, Tammy Wynette).
Miller also earned another crossover hit with a cover of The Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine” (which netted Miller a Grammy nomination for best country vocal performance-female).
Miller left the road in the 1980s to spend more time with her family, which included her husband Monty Brooks, and daughter Robin. She also assisted in managing Brooks’ quarter horse breeding and training company at their Blanchard, Oklahoma property. She released numerous gospel albums in the 1990s.
After her husband Brooks died in 2014, Miller founded Jody Miller & Three Generations with her daughter and grandchildren (they released the single “Where My Picture Hangs on the Wall” in 2018). Miller was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2018, joining Susie McEntire and Gayla Peevey in an all-female class. Miller recorded her final effort, the upcoming album Wayfaring Stranger, in 2020, which is set to be released by Columbia Records.
“Jody Miller’s talent cannot be overstated,” said Miller’s longtime representative Jennifer McMullen. “She had this innate, God-given ability to interpret and communicate with the most beautiful tones and inflection. She made it look and sound so easy that it sometimes takes a moment to realize the greatness of what you are hearing. But she was just as authentic and exceptional in her life as on stage and on record.”
Miller is survived by her sisters Carol Cooper and Vivian Cole; daughter Robin Brooks Sullivan and her husband Shawn Sullivan; grandson Montana Sullivan and granddaughter Layla Sullivan.