Hee Haw Star Jim Hager Dies

Jim Hager, half of the Hager Twins who rose to fame doling out one-liners on the old Country Music television series “Hee Haw”, passed away in Nashville last week after collapsing in a coffee shop. 

 

Hager, who was 66, was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, but no cause of death has been released yet.

 

The twins, who were also guitarists and drummers, rose to national fame as original cast members of “Hee Haw,” a Nashville-based television show in 1969. With its mixture of music and Country-flavored humor, the series was a huge hit. The show was a Country knock-off of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”.

 

“People laughed at themselves,” Jim Hager said in a 1988 interview with The Associated Press. “They liked the chemistry on the show and the fast pace.”

 

The jokes “were not all platinum,” he said. “The writers count on the person delivering the line to pull it off. It was cornball, no denying it.”

 

The Hager twins were born in the Chicago area, and lived in Los Angeles before “Hee Haw.”  In 1988, the Hager Twins commented that they had been together all their lives except for three and a half years, after Jon left Los Angeles and moved to Nashville. Jim remained on the West Coast, but eventually followed.