Jan Howard, singer-songwriter and Grand Ole Opry standout, dies at 91

[Fansome]

Howard, a singer-songwriter who partnered with Bill Anderson for the No. 1 country song “For Loving You” and wrote several other 1960s and ’70s hits, including Kitty Wells’s “It’s All Over (But the Crying),” died March 28 in Gallatin, Tenn. She was 91.

Her death was announced by the Grand Ole Opry, which did not give a precise cause. “Jan Howard was a force of nature in country music, at the Opry, and in life,” Dan Rogers, the Opry’s vice president and executive producer, said in a statement.

Ms. Howard had her first hit in 1959 with “The One You Slip Around With,” co-written by her then-husband, Harlan Howard. She had a string of others, including the 1966 songs “Evil on Your Mind” and “Bad Seed,” before finding her biggest success with Anderson.

Performing as a duo, they recorded hits including “I Know You’re Married,” “Someday We’ll Be Together” and “For Loving You,” which spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard country chart in 1967.

Her hits for others included Wells’s “It’s All Over” (1966) and Connie Smith’s “I Never Once Stopped Loving You” (1970). Her most personal song was perhaps “My Son,” which she wrote as plea for her son Jimmy’s safe return from the Vietnam War. He was killed two weeks after its release in 1968. Another son later killed himself.

The fifth of eight children, she was born Lula Grace Johnson in West Plains, Mo., on March 13, 1929. She was married and divorced several times.

Survivors include her son, Carter A. Howard; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.