Earl Freudenberg: An Afternoon With Lulu Roman

Comedian, singer and author Lulu Roman died Wednesday at her son’s home in Bellington, Wash. Friends said Ms. Roman called Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, home but she’d been living with family during an extended illness.

Country and bluegrass Singer Ricky Skaggs was a friend of Ms. Roman and said, “We loved her, such a talented person, a great entertainer, a great singer and wonderful Christian lady. We will miss her sweet smile and great hugs.”

“Hello Chattanooga” by David Carroll has no record of Ms. Roman performing at either the Memorial Auditorium or Tivoli Theater. Ms. Roman did sing for a Southern Gospel Music Fan Fair at the downtown Chattanooga Trade Center in March, 2007, and she did a benefit concert in 2015 with Ty Herndon and Anita Cochran for families of Chattanooga’s fallen five military personnel killed in the terror attack.

Ms. Roman was one of a dozen Southern Gospel Music Artists to participate in Fan Fair at the Trade Center, and WDYN FM was designated as the flagship station. While this writer was on the air, Ms. Roman came through the door announcing she wanted to meet this “Hey Earl” whom she’d been listening to on the radio.

She joined this writer at our broadcast table and told her story on the air. Ms. Roman said she was placed in an orphanage at the age of 2 1/2 and her mother taken to a mental health facility. She said she never knew her father.

The conversation lasted well over an hour with the entertainer describing in great detail her life growing up. Ms. Roman said a high school teacher recognized her love for public speaking and music that would help her later in life.

Upon graduating high school, Ms. Roman left the orphanage going to work at the telephone company. She was fired from that job for cussing but found work as a go–go dancer in a club owned by Jack Ruby who killed lee Harvey Oswald, who had assassinated President Kennedy.

Ms. Roman said one of the guests was “Cowboy Buck” (Owens) who was doing concerts around the Dallas–Fort Worth area.

“Buck told me, someday you’re going to be a big star and I’m going to have something to do with it,” the singer said.

A few days later she was on her way to California to meet with CBS executives and the first person to greet her was Carol Burnette.

Lulu Roman got the job in 1969 for season one of Hee Haw but was taken off the program after being arrested for drug possession and addiction. Ms. Roman said after leaving jail, she ran into Diane whom she had grown up with in the orphanage. “She started to share Jesus with me and, at first, I resisted, but I was impressed when she told me how God had changed her life. I could see the big difference and, with Diane’s help, I gave my life to the Lord and He instantly took the drugs away.”

She joked in the interview, “I found Jesus but not Weight Watchers.”

It wasn’t long until Ms. Roman was back at Hee Haw and the first person to greet her was Roy Acuff. “He was extremely genuine; all he wanted to talk about was God and how He’d blessed him daily. He’d say I’m looking forward to walking with Him someday. The sign on Mr. Acuff’s Grand Ole Opry Dressing Room Door said there is nothing going to happen today that God and I can’t handle.”

The singer said Mr. Acuff heard her sing the song, “That’s the man I’m looking for,” and he recorded it. She said, "Mr. Acuff sang it on the Opry many, many times.”

Ms. Roman said some of the Hee Haw cast (a lot of them were Christians) questioned how sincere she was, and if she’d made a commitment. “They would say, you are a Jesus freak, I’d say, No Sir, Jesus takes freaks and makes them into people.” Ms. Roman said, “It took me 10 years to grasp the meaning of forgiveness and I finally learned Jesus came to forgive.”

During the lengthy conversation, Ms. Roman told several funny stories while she was with Hee Haw. “Grandpa Jones was the funniest, he had a hearing problem, and when you’d talk to him he'd say ‘What do you say’?

She said one of her best friends was Minnie Pearl. “When Minnie was wearing her hat with the price tag she was a comedienne, but when she was in a business suit Sarah Cannon was talking about cancer.”

Ms. Roman said, “I was a rolly polly from the beginning, fatty fatty two by four can’t get through the kitchen door. Looking back, God had a plan. I was fat for a reason, and it landed me a network television job. I was on the first Hee Haw show in 1969 and the last telecast in 1995. It was in God’s plan for me to go to jail and then re-unite with a friend who shared the Gospel with me. Now here I am sharing Jesus with Hey Earl and his listeners and telling anyone who will listen what Jesus Christ can do for them.”

Ms. Roman said when she went to Israel on tour she couldn’t wait to go inside Jesus’ tomb. “I lay down in the tomb and felt His presence. It was remarkable, there’s not hardly any way you can explain it; you just have to experience it.”

Lulu Roman recorded dozens of records and compact discs including duets with Dolly Parton and George Jones. At every concert, Ms. Roman sang Emmylou Harris’ Orphan Girl, a song she says was written just for her.

Ms. Roman said her favorite past time is cooking, “I’m the best cook in Nashville - just ask Kenny Price and Junior Samples. Ms. Roman wrote a cookbook and it sold 5,000 copies in eight minutes when released on QVC TV. “You can’t beat my spagatti, Indian Stew and I’ve had a bad day macaroni and cheese.” She gave away a few autographed cookbooks to WDYN listeners.

As the conversation between the two of us progressed, several dozen patrons gathered around our broadcast table to listen to Lulu Roman. Someone finally came to get Ms. Roman for a sound check. She said, “I got to meet Hey Earl, I’ll be back tomorrow to finish the interview.”

The second day Ms. Roman came back, as promised, and related more experiences from Hee Haw. She even talked about singing at President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 inauguration and being guest soloist at several of President Jimmy Carter’s Sunday School lessons. “I loved both of them so much and they loved Jesus,” Ms. Roman said.

Before leaving our broadcast table, Ms. Roman said, “Hey Earl, let me share my life verses with your audience and she quoted from memory, Jeremiah 29: 11-14.

¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Country music singer T. Graham Brown said, “Lulu Roman was a dear friend of 40 years and she will always be remembered as one who made people laugh and smile. What better tribute is there? I talked to her a few days ago and we shared one last laugh and I told her that I loved her.”