Saturday, May 14, 2005
BY GEORGE BERKIN
Star-Ledger Staff
When Betty Jean Dempsey played the Honky Tonk Cafe at a VFW post in Nutley last year, she brought a voice honed by three decades of playing country and western music and a soul that was born and raised in the Deep South.
Singing with Mack Sullivan and the Oklahoma Wranglers, Ms. Dempsey brought her gift to "He's a Live Wire" and other tunes.
"The crowd loved it," said Tex Doyle of Clifton, a frequent singing partner.
Ms. Dempsey, who arrived in New Jersey from Baton Rouge, La., on the cusp of adulthood and went on to play in clubs and other venues throughout northern New Jersey, died last Saturday. She was 57.
A longtime Jersey City resident, she returned to her Southern roots when she moved to Greensboro, N.C., about three years ago, but occasionally she visited New Jersey.
She died in Greensboro's Wesley Long Hospital of complications from lung disease, family members said.
"She sang the old country music," with a style influenced by Patsy Cline, Tanya Tucker and Loretta Lynn, said her daughter, Katherine Morris of Brick.
As a young child in Louisiana, one of five siblings, Ms. Dempsey learned to play the trumpet and acoustic guitar, Morris said. And at an early age, her father brought her onstage.
Ms. Dempsey was "a bit shy, but once she got up there, she sang her heart out," her daughter said.
At 18, she wrote or co-wrote and recorded four records for K- Ark in Nashville, Tenn., including songs whose titles fairly twang: "Lonesome Without You" and Crazy Crazy Crazy Heart."
Ms. Dempsey's father, Jack, did construction and electrical work. When her family moved to Jersey City, her club career took off.
She played The Hurricane in New York, headlining with singer Eddie Rabbit before he achieved a national reputation.
She also played Charlie's Corner, now Krajewski's, in Secaucus, the Rocking Horse in Union City, the Rainbow Inn in Wood-Ridge and the Blue Ribbon Inn in Hillside.
Over the years, Ms. Dempsey garnered some awards. On April 25, 1970, for example, she was named "best female artist" for an 11-state area during ceremonies at The Golden Nugget in Newburgh, N.Y.
But her career never turned national.
At the Palomino Club in Wallington, the owner, Mack Sullivan, hired her to sing, and then suggested a nationwide tour, Ms. Dempsey's daughter said.
Ms. Dempsey turned him down. A single mother, Ms. Dempsey wanted to make sure her only daughter had a stable home life, Morris said.
"When I hear her sing in public, or at home when I listen to her tapes, it often brings tears to my eyes," her daughter said. "It may be the intensity of her voice and her feeling behind the music she sings or because I know she worked so hard her whole life playing music and she deserves to have gone further than playing in some nightclub or wedding."
On a recent Christmas, Morris added, she visited her mother and found her whole bedroom was covered with Christmas cards. "I asked her, 'Who are all of these from?' She told me they were from her fans, people that follow her around all the time to watch her sing."
On Thursday, the radio station at Fairleigh Dickinson University will play a retrospective of Ms. Dempsey's career, her daughter said. The show, on WFDU 89.1 FM, is to air sometime between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
In addition to her daughter, Katherine Morris, Ms. Dempsey is survived by two brothers, Calvin Dempsey of Knoxville, Tenn., and Robert Dempsey of Ridgefield Park; her mother, Leona Dempsey of Greensboro ; and two granddaughters, Amanda and Rachael of Brick.
Funeral services were held yesterday in Queen of Peace Church, North Arlington. Burial was in Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington. Arrangements were by the Wilfred Armitage Funeral Home, Kearny.
2005 The Star Ledger
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