(CelebrityAccess) — Roni Stoneman, the country music icon, comedian and “Hee Haw” star known as the “first lady of banjo” has died. She was 85.
A cause or a location of her passing was not provided but news of her passing was shared by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
“For Roni Stoneman, known as ‘The First Lady of the Banjo,’ country music was a birthright and her life’s work,” Kyle Young, the CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a statement. “The second youngest of 23 children born to Hattie and Ernest ‘Pop’ Stoneman, Roni was an integral part of a bedrock country music family, who were longtime fixtures in the country music scene of Washington, D.C. For 18 years on ‘Hee Haw,’ she stole scenes as both a skillful banjo player and as a comical, gap-toothed country character. She was a great talent and a strong woman.”
The daughter of country music pioneer Ernest V. “Pop” Stoneman, Roni joined the family band as a banjo player in 1957.
The family became a successful touring act in the 1950s and was eventually featured in their own television series “The Stonemans” in 1965.
Following her father’s passing in 1968, Stoneman ventured out as a solo artist and later joined the cast of “Hee Haw,” appearing in a number of roles on the show, including the laundress Ida Lee Nagger.
Stoneman’s other roles included motion pictures such as “W.W. and the Disco Kings” with Burt Reynolds and television projects such as “Tony Orlando and Dawn” and “Folk America.”
In 2007, Stoneman published a memoir detailing her life and experiences, “Pressing On: The Roni Stoneman Story.”
She was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2021 with the rest of her family.
