Jan Howard

Did You Know?

• Jan Howard was the eighth of 11 children, with two siblings who died before age two.
• She was raped by a family friend when she was eight years old, an event she wrote about in her 1987 autobiography.
• Her first husband held a butcher knife to her throat after she refused to move again; a friend's knock interrupted him.
• Her second marriage was annulled in 1955 after she discovered her husband was a bigamist.

Early life

Lula Grace Johnson was born in West Plains, Missouri, the eighth of 11 children. Her mother was a nurse's assistant who cared for elderly people at home, and her father was a brick mason who received Works Progress Administration employment during the Great Depression. The family moved frequently for her father's work, living in Kansas City, Birch Tree, and Oklahoma City. When Lula was eight, the family briefly returned to West Plains, where she was raped by a family friend.

She later wrote that her body was violated and her mind damaged in ways she would not fully understand for years. The abuse was kept secret. Because of the moves, Lula attended school sporadically, often in one-room schoolhouses. Truancy officers sometimes forced her to return.

Her mother separated from her father in 1943 and brought the children back to West Plains. Lula worked as a dishwasher in a cafe, receiving food for her family instead of pay. At 16, she worked at a drugstore. In 1945, she married Mearle Wood and dropped out of high school.

After Wood joined the military, they lived in Waynesville, Missouri, sharing a house with another military couple. She briefly returned to her parents after discovering Wood's affair, but reunited with him when he was restationed in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Singing career

In 1957, she met and married Harlan Howard. Early in their marriage, he discovered that she could sing. Impressed by her voice, Harlan arranged for her to record demonstration tapes. These tapes were heard by other country artists and led to her first recording contract with Challenge Records. Howard had her first major country hit in 1960 with "The One You Slip Around With". As her husband's songwriting became more successful, Howard's recording career followed suit. She had her biggest success after signing with Decca Records. Howard had major hits with the singles "Evil on Your Mind" (1966) and "My Son" (1968). She also had several hits after teaming up with Bill Anderson, including the number-one hit "For Loving You" (1967). The pair continued recording and touring together until the mid-1970s.

Writing career and other professions

Howard wrote poems and published an autobiography. In 1987, Howard published her best-selling autobiography entitled Sunshine and Shadow. She also started writing poems and short stories, and remained active in other ways, including regular appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. She also worked with United States military veterans through various programs. She donated to charities and spoke at fundraisers.

Personal life

Howard married four times. She married Mearle Wood at age 16, after meeting him at the drugstore where she worked. She later said she did not want to marry him but her mother encouraged the courtship. Her second marriage, to Lowell "Smitty" Smith, ended after two years when she discovered he was a bigamist. In her third marriage to Harlan Howard, her three children were legally adopted by him. In the mid-1960s, the couple owned Wilderness Music, a publishing company in Nashville. After their divorce, Harlan took control of the company, which Jan said upset her; she told her lawyers she wanted nothing but the divorce. She then became close to her divorce lawyer, Jack Norman, a licensed pilot who took her on plane rides and spent nights at her home. Their affair continued into the mid-1970s while Norman was still married.