Edgar Glosup

Edgar Dean Glosup (July 9, 1907 - March 4, 1999)

(more popularly known as Eddie Dean)

Biography

Edgar Glosup sang baritone with the V O Stamps Quartet during the mid-1920s when he was a teenager. He also sang with the Stamps Friendly Four.

After leaving the quartet, Glosup relocated to Chicago in 1926 to pursue a career in radio. The following year, he moved to Iowa and began billing himself as Eddie Dean. He and his brother, Jimmie, began appearing together in 1929, ultimately returning to Chicago where they performed on WLS Radio's National Barn Dance and recorded for the ARC and Decca labels.

As his career blossomed, Dean appeared as a singer on Judy Canova's radio show. He expanded into acting as well, making his first appearance in 1934's Manhattan Love Song. He would ultimately appear in more than thirty western films, mostly during the 1940s. He was one of the first (and possibly the very first) of the singing cowboy movie stars to appear in a color film.

Dean's connection to quartet music resurfaced in the late 1940s when he employed the Sunshine Boys (Ace Richman, Eddie Wallace, and brothers Tennessee and Smitty Smith) as a backup group. After 1948, Dean focused on his singing and songwriting career. (Critics of his day generally praised his singing, but panned his acting skills.) He did not abandon acting entirely, however. During the 1960s, Dean appeared in at least two episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies portraying a policeman.

As a songwriter, Dean is best known for "One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)" and "I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven." In 1964, Dean was a co-founding member of the Academy Of Country Music.

Dean continued singing, making public appearances until he was well past 80 years of age. He died at the age of 91 in 1999.

Awards

1978 - Academy Of Country Music Pioneer Award
1990 - Western Music Association Hall Of Fame
1993 - Cowboy Hall of Fame
1999 - Palm Springs Walk Of Fame