‘Hee Haw’ Star and Gospel Singer Was 78

Lulu Roman, who found fame as a comedic actress and singer on the TV series “Hee Haw” over a run that lasted from 1969 till 1993, died Wednesday at age 78. No cause of death was immediately given, apart from it being revealed that Roman passed away unexpectedly.

Beyond her long and successful run on television, which also included guest spots on “The Love Boat” and “Touched by an Angel,” Roman recorded a long series of albums in the Southern gospel vein, winning a Dove Award in 1985 and being inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

The rural-themed sketch-comedy and country music show was looking for a plus-sized actress with comedic skills to become a member of the ensemble cast when “Hee Haw” went on the air in 1969. Roman fit the bill perfectly, instantly becoming practically a member of the family in many American homes that had a taste for the show’s literal cornpone humor.

Fellow singers and her TV costars paid tribute to her Thursday. “We were as different as night and day, said Misty Rowe, a “Hee Haw” stalwart. “Working together since 1972 we were the original Hee Haw Honeys and the original Kornfield Friends. Yet we would often squabble and then make up by saying ‘I love you Lu’ and she would say ‘I love you too Sugar.’ Lulu was a gift in my life. She played my mother twice and yet she was just three years older than me. We were Gossipy Girls and now Lulu is my angel in heaven. I thank God for her time here on earth and I know we will all see her again in that big Kornfield in the sky someday. She will sing us home.” 

Roman credited “Hee Haw” co-host and country legend Buck Owens for getting her her break. “He said, ‘One of these days you’re going to be a big star, and I’m going to have something to do with it.’ I says, ‘Keep talking, cowboy’,” she recalled in an interview for “The 700 Club.” “But “When they put together the ‘Hee Haw’ show, there were a couple of fellows from Canada that had seen ‘Laugh-In’ and thought, ‘This could be a good thing. We could do country music in this and do real well.’ So they made a list: one gorgeous blonde and one gorgeous brunette; one girl-next-door type and one boy-next-door type; one fat, dumb man and one fat, dumb woman. Buck said, ‘I got your girl. She’s in Dallas!’”

She added, kidding, “I was the gorgeous blonde, of course … He said, ‘They’re going to do this country and western-type show, and they’re going to call it ‘Hee Haw.’ I said, ‘Hee what?’ He said, ‘Hee Haw, like a donkey.’ I said, ‘Sure.’ He said, ‘There’s going to be a lot of money.’ I said, ‘Keep talkin’.’ They put me on a big jet plane, and they flew me to Hollywood, took me to CBS Television Studios. The first person I saw was Carol Burnett. I’ll never forget as long as I live. She met us in the hall and said, ‘Shut your mouth, child. You’re fixin’ to be one of us.’”

But life outside of the Hollywood cornfield was difficult for Roman, who admitted she was “so messed up on drugs… most of the time” while doing the show. “I ended up getting busted not once, but twice, for possession of dangerous drugs. It ended up costing me losing my position on the ‘Hee Haw’ show for a whole year. In the middle of that, I found out that I was very much with child,” and unwed, which was scandalous for a family show in the early 1970s.

“Hee Haw” was canceled by CBS in 1971, just two years into its run, in what some referred to as a “rural purge.” But it became a hit in syndication, and Roman rejoined the cast in 1973, sticking with the show until it finally went off the air in the mid-1990s.

Her battles with narcotics and overeating stemmed partly from being abandoned to an orphanage as a child. Born Bertha Louise Hable in Dallas, Texas on May 6, 1946, Roman said she vividly remembered the day she was dropped off at age 4 by her grandmother, on Sept. 10, 1950. “I think I probably felt it a little harder than most of them because I was ‘the fat kid.’ I came in with a thyroid problem,” she said, “and I got things like, ‘Fatty, fatty, 2 x 4, can’t get through the kitchen door.’ I realize now that even then the enemy had plans to speak death to my spirit.” In another interview with CBN, she said, “I think my food became my drug probably the day that they put me in the orphans’ home. Sugar became my friend, because it didn’t hurt me and it didn’t talk back to me; it didn’t call me names.”

That factored into her ticket to stardom, ironically. “I learned very early on that I could use a quick wit that the Lord had given me to have people laugh with me instead of at me.” That sense of humor was burnished over a long period of time in the orphans’ home, as, she said, “I never got adopted. They didn’t adopt fat kids.” When she turned 18, she was released from the orphanage into the world.

During her forced hiatus from “Hee Haw,” things went badly enough for Roman that she was jailed twice. Meeting up afterward with a friend from the orphanage after she’d gotten out of jail for the second time, she was convinced to attend a church service. “When I got down on my knees and gave my life to the Lord, in that place, I mean, instantly He took those drugs away from me.” The show, well aware of her enduring popularity even when she was off the air, took note of her cleaning up. “They said, ‘Will you come back?’ And I said, ‘I’ll tell you this: I’ll pray about it.’

Roman returned to the show and stuck with it through many changes — including a move from a network prime-time spot to syndication — until “Hee Haw” finally signed off in 1995, 26 years after it started.

Roman got an allowance to sing Christian songs on the show, and released many albums in the Southern gospel vein during and subsequent to her “Hee Haw” run. She was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Even though Roman found satisfaction in spirituality, her physical health declined, to the point she said she weighed 380 pounds by the time she was in her early 60s and could only get around using a scooter.

But she dropped 200 pounds from her frame, and went down from a size 56/58 to a size 14/16. “Now not only can I walk, but I can run. Not fast, but I can run,” she boasted.

Roman had lap-band surgery in 2005, and then had to have the band removed due to complications in 2009. At that point she was “terrified” she would regain all the weight, but said she was able to maintain it through her faith and the discipline of portion control.

“You have to choose to be a forgiver,” Roman said about finding a way to release her birth family from the animus she held against them from abandoning her at 4. “Then I had to forgive myself for all the stupid choices I made in my life… You can allow the blood of Jesus to define who you are, and in that is freedom.”

Many friends from the country and gospel worlds paid tribute to her Thursday.

“I am saddened that Lulu Roman has passed,” said Crystal Gayle. “I have known Lulu since the beginning of my career and she has been a special friend ever since. It’s hard to say goodbyes. I will miss my old friend.” 

“Lulu has been a part of my life for the past 56 years, from the day we first met at WLAC in May, 1969, for the first taping of ‘Hee Haw’,” said cast member Cathy Baker. “From that moment we have shared laughter and tears, raised children, lost too many friends, wrapped each other in consolation and relished the amazing friendship and family ‘Hee Haw’ gave us. It is not easy to say goodbye, even knowing she’s in a far better place, within a circle of unending love and joy. I will miss her and will cherish every sweet, silly glorious memory of times spent together.” 

““ulu Roman’s talent knew no bounds,” said another cast member, Victoria Hallman. “I was honored to perform with her on ‘Hee Haw,’ as well as in many stage shows, but more than a castmate, Lulu was my big sister. For 26 years of deep love and loyalty, whether crying tears of sorrow or joy, we were there for each other — always. While the whole world mourns an icon, I mourn the best big sister anyone ever had.” 

Roman was preceded in death by her son, Justin Collin Roman, who died in 2017, “a loss that profoundly shaped her perspective and deepened her faith,” according to her official obituary.