Grady Nutt

Grady Lee Nutt, Baptist minister and television personality, was born in Amarillo, Texas, on September 2, 1934, the oldest of four children of Grady C. and Doris (Rickman) Nutt. His father worked as a dairy salesman and operated a dry-cleaning business before going into the ministry. Growing up in a strong Christian atmosphere, Grady was licensed as a Baptist minister at the age of thirteen. He attended Alice Landergin Elementary School and Nixon Junior High, where he first became interested in entertaining. When he was fourteen his family moved to Jacksonville, Texas, where his father received ministerial training at Jacksonville Baptist College. After completing high school, Grady attended Wayland Baptist College in Plainview, where he sang in the International Choir, before transferring to Baylor University in Waco, where he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1957.

Nutt married his college sweetheart, Eleanor Wilson, of Memphis, Tennessee, on June 18, 1957. They had two sons. Nutt served as minister of youth at the First Baptist Church in Waco and later at Gaston Avenue Baptist Church in Dallas. In 1960 he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received his master's degree in 1964. He lived in Louisville and served as minister of music at the Southside Baptist Church and later as pastor of the Baptist congregation in Graefenburg, Kentucky. He was also director of alumni affairs and assistant to the president at Southern Seminary.

In addition to his ministerial duties, Nutt began entertaining young people with humorous stories about churches and preachers, experiences from his early life, and familiar events from the Bible. He soon gained a national reputation as a speaker and, after being "discovered" by television game-show host Ralph Edwards, appeared eleven times on the Mike Douglas talk show. Nutt went into the entertainment field in 1969 as a lecturer-entertainer and soon averaged about twenty speaking engagements a month, plus others for charitable causes. He regularly spoke at Baptist student gatherings and was a featured speaker at the 1980 and 1982 Southern Baptist Convention meetings.

His career continued on the rise in 1979, when he joined the regular cast of the "Hee Haw" television series. His homespun stories as a preacher on the show won him billing as the "Prime Minister of Humor." In addition, he starred in his own television special, "The Grady Nutt Show," in July 1981. In all, Nutt recorded six albums and wrote such books as Being Me (1971), The Gospel According to Norton (1974), Agaperos (1977), and his autobiography, So Good, So Far (1979). He gleaned all of his material from his own experiences or from stories he had heard.

On November 23, 1982, Nutt was the guest speaker at a youth rally and banquet in Cullman, Alabama. Later that night he and two employees of Central American Airways in Louisville were killed when the plane in which they were flying crashed soon after taking off from the airport in Vinemont, Alabama. He was buried in Louisville. His death was mourned by the country music and entertainment world; Buck Owens, cohost of "Hee Haw," described Nutt as "an original whose brand of humor can't be replaced."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grady_Nutt

Grady Lee Nutt (September 2, 1934 – November 23, 1982) was a Southern Baptist minister, humorist, television personality, and author. His humor revolved around rural Southern Protestantism and earned him the title as "The Prime Minister of Humor."

Childhood and early career

Grady Lee Nutt was born in Amarillo, Texas, the oldest of four children (three sons and a daughter) born to Grady C. and Doris (née Rickman) Nutt. Reared in a family of devout Baptists, Nutt was a licensed minister by the age of 13.

Nutt briefly attended Wayland Baptist College in Plainview, Texas before transferring to Baylor University. Immediately after graduation, he married Eleanor Wilson and served as youth minister of the First Baptist Church of Waco and later at Gaston Avenue Baptist Church in Dallas.

In 1960, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to attend The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he simultaneously pastored churches in the Louisville metro area. Following his graduation in 1964, he served as director of alumni affairs and assistant to the president of Southern Seminary.

Entertainment career

While serving as a minister and seminary administrator, Nutt began accepting speaking engagements. His speeches were blended with humor, and he came to the attention of Ralph Edwards, the producer of the popular TV series Truth or Consequences and This Is Your Life. He was soon a semi-regular on The Mike Douglas Show.

In 1979, he was added to the regular cast of Hee Haw, a position he held until his death. During his stint on Hee Haw, he was given 90 – 120 seconds in which he would do an improvisational routine.

In 1981, he was cast as Rev. Grady Williams in a pilot for an NBC sitcom called The Grady Nutt Show. The episode dealt with Rev. Williams being called to preach the funeral of man disliked by the entire community, and dealing with his teenage daughter's foray into dating. The 30-minute pilot was broadcast on NBC, but had not yet been put into production as a series at the time of his death.

During his career, he published several books, including The Gospel According to Norton and an autobiography entitled So Good, So Far; he also released several comedic records and one Southern Gospel album, Give the World A Smile.

Death and legacy

On November 23, 1982, following a speaking engagement in Cullman, Alabama, Nutt boarded a chartered flight (a Beechcraft Baron 55, aircraft registration number N18411). The plane crashed immediately after takeoff, killing Nutt, the pilot and copilot. The cause of the crash was undetermined; however, weather conditions (fog and rain) were cited as contributing factors in the accident. He was buried on the Wilson family farm in Fayette County, Tennessee.

Following his death, the Gospel Music Association established the Grady Nutt Humor award to excellence in Christian comedy.

His widow has established the Grady Nutt Endowment Fund at the University of Louisville, which offers an annual prize of $400 to the most creative fine arts project. and a Grady Nutt memorial collection was established in the student center at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.

Also, Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky named the Grady Nutt Athletic Center in his honor.