Barbara Mandrell’s Father Dies

Roy Clark, Barbara Mandrell and Charlie McCoy are announced as the 2009 inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame at a press conference hosted by the Country Music Association on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. Photo by John Russell, courtesy of the Country Music Association.

March 5, 2009 — Barbara Mandrell’s father, Irby, who played a huge role in her landmark career, died Thursday at Nashville’s Baptist Hospital, two days after he was first hospitalized.

No cause of death was announced for the 84-year-old, who played a significant role in Barbara’s life, not only as a parent but also as her manager. He began mentoring her in the business while she was still in school and continued to oversee her career even when she reached her peak in the early 1980s when she became the first person ever to win the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award twice. He also had a hand in the careers of Barbara’s two sisters. Louise enjoyed a successful run of hits as a country artist in the mid-1980s, and Irlene spent some time as a cast member on "Hee Haw."

"Our family and some friends were standing around my daddy's bed at Baptist Hospital when he passed peacefully on to his heavenly home," Barbara said in a statement. "I'm speaking for all of my family, especially my sisters Louise and Irlene, when I say he was our hero and we will miss him always."

Irby was on hand when Barbara was announced last month as one of the 2009 inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She made a point during the ceremony of thanking him personally for his guidance.

"It’s been all about Daddy and me," she said. "In 1970 when we got our first bus — that bus that was made in 1948 — I thought it was the most beautiful bus in the world. And [he] drove it, usually only about 10 or 12 hours — sometimes 14 or 16, sometimes 24 hours — and I’d sit and talk to [him], and we’d talk about someday we’d get a new bus."

Ultimately, she got a new bus, a bundle of hit records and an NBC variety series, "Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters."

"Daddy all the way taught me — first booked the dates, went out and worked them with me, got me there, but he wore many, many hats," Barbara noted. Her Hall of Fame honor "is me being honored, and this is Irby Mandrell being honored, because he earned it."

Visitation will be held at Forest Lawn Funeral Home in Goodlettsville, Tenn., from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. The funeral is slated for Sunday.

Barbara was slated to appear Friday at the Country Radio Seminar, where she is to be interviewed by Brooks & Dunn’s Kix Brooks. A spokesman for the CRS announced Thursday that despite her personal tragedy, Barbara intended to honor the commitment.