Jean Shepard, a pioneering female country music artist, died on 25 September 2016 at the age of 82 from complications related to Parkinson's disease and heart disease. Shepard was a trailblazer who refused to accept the limited roles available for women in 1950s and 1960s country music, instead carving out her own distinctive career with bold, assertive songs. Her legacy proved instrumental in paving the way for later female country stars such as Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, demonstrating that women could succeed in the traditionally male-dominated genre.

Born in Oklahoma in 1933 to sharecropper parents, Shepard moved to California during the Dust Bowl era and formed an all-female musical group in high school. Despite widespread sexism in the recording industry, she achieved considerable success, becoming the youngest woman ever to land a number-one country hit with "A Dear John Letter" in 1953 at just under 20 years old. She joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1956 as one of only four female members at the time. Shepard continued her career through personal tragedy—her husband, honky-tonk singer Harold Hawkins, died in 1963 in the same plane crash that killed Patsy Cline—and remained a consistent chart presence through 1978, with her final top-10 hit "Slippin' Away" arriving in 1973.