Jerry Jeff Walker, Austin country music legend, dies at 78
Jerry Jeff Walker, who moved to Austin after becoming famous with the song “Mr. Bojangles” and helped change the Austin music landscape in the 1970s, died Friday evening after an extended battle with throat cancer. He was 78.
Walker’s wife of 46 years, Susan Walker, confirmed Saturday morning that Jerry Jeff died around 6 p.m. Friday at Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas. “He was at home until an hour before his passing,” she said. “He went very peacefully, which we were extremely grateful for.”
Walker had been dealing with throat cancer for several years and had nearly died in 2017. He rallied to finish a new album and played more shows, but a downturn in his health more recently resulted in difficulties with speaking and eating.
Born Ronald Clyde Crosby on March 16, 1942, in Oneonta, N.Y., Walker wrote “Mr. Bojangles” in the mid-1960s after a night in a New Orleans jail where he met a man who “danced a lick across the cell.” Walker released the song as the title track of a 1968 solo album, shortly after he left the New York band Circus Maximus. In 1971, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band took “Mr. Bojangles” to No. 9 on the pop charts. More than 100 other artists also recorded the song, including Bob Dylan, Sammy Davis Jr., Nina Simone and Neil Diamond.
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