Lulu Roman, ‘Hee Haw' comedian who became a gospel singer after trading drugs for God, dies at 78
The 'On the Battlefield' singer died Wednesday evening, according to a news release obtained by The Times. She called Mount Juliet, Tenn., her home for many years, but was living with her son in Washington state when she died.
'Lulu Roman has been a dear friend for over 40 years,' country and bluegrass singer Ricky Skaggs said Thursday on X (formerly Twitter). 'We loved her. Such a talented person. A great entertainer, a great singer and a wonderful Christian lady. We will miss her sweet smile and great hugs.'
'Sing with the angels now sweet friend!' singer Stella Parton tweeted.
'I loved her joyful attitude,' 'God Bless the U.S.A.' singer Lee Greenwood said in a statement. 'She always lifted everyone up and her voice will live on forever in the country music community. She was a legend in our industry and will be missed!'
Roman explained in a 2024 interview that she was a 'screamin' crazy' comic performer in Dallas strip clubs when 'Hee Haw' was cast in 1969.
She was born Bertha Louise Hable in Dallas in 1946 at a home for unwed mothers, given up for adoption and raised in an orphanage. Significantly overweight from comforting herself with food, she was never adopted, according to Florida Weekly, instead getting hooked on drugs when she was in high school.
'I think food became my drug probably the day that they put me in the orphan's home,' she told CBN when she was in her 60s. 'Sugar became my friend, because it didn't hurt me. And it didn't talk back to me, it didn't call me names. I think sugar became a comfort to me when I was very young.'
A thyroid condition didn't help.
'I was the proverbial hippie,' she told Florida Weekly in 2020, working as a heavy-set comedic go-go dancer. Country and gospel music weren't on her radar. 'I was into the drug scene.'
Buck Owens, a famous musician friend who in the late 1960s was about to be on 'Hee Haw,' dropped her name for consideration by the folks casting the show.
'They needed one boy next door, one fat dumb man, one fat dumb woman,' Roman said in her 2024 chat with Nashville station WTVF. 'Buck said, 'I got your girl! She's in Dallas!''
'And they took his word,' she said after telling the same story on the 'Larry's Country Diner' podcast in 2021. Roman was cast on the show, which would go from a summer replacement series for 'The Smothers Brothers' to a hit running for 23 seasons. Roman appeared in 158 of the show's 352 episodes, including its first and last.
She was missing from the corny comedy show from early 1971 to 1973 after getting arrested for drug possession and sentenced to time behind bars.
'What I was unconsciously trying to do was kill myself,' she told Florida Weekly, admitting she used weed, speed, LSD and methamphetamine. 'I tried many times, but it never worked out. I had no idea that God had any kind of a calling on my life.'
According to the outlet, in 1973 she became a Christian and 'Hee Haw' brought her back to sing gospel music on the show. She eventually released more than a dozen albums and sang with Dolly Parton. She was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in the late 1990s.
After acting in the 1972 Robert Blake movie 'Corky,' Roman appeared in the 'Hee Haw' spin-off 'Hee Haw Honeys' in the late 1970s and two episodes of 'The Love Boat' in 1983. In 2001, she showed up on 'Touched by an Angel.'
As the 2000s began, Roman could no longer ignore her health, she told CBN. 'I was about 380 some-odd pounds. I was in a scooter. I could not walk. My legs were in trouble. My back was in trouble,' she said.
'I came to the place that I was 60 some-odd years old, about 61, 62. I said, 'Father, I can't be an effective witness for you like this. I can't travel. I can't stand up. I can't breathe.' And so I knew that I had to make a change. I had to make a life change.'
With lap-band surgery in 2005 and a focus on portion control, she dropped 200 pounds. The band was removed in 2009, but she finally managed to keep the weight off.
'I was terrified. I was,' she told CBN. 'But then I said, 'Father, I'm going to trust you that you're going to allow me to maintain this.''
On Thursday, the singer's former publicist Ben Laurro told People, 'Lulu Roman was unsung. She endured much adversity in her life that helped her become a joy to others.'
Married twice, Roman is survived by her older son, Damon Roman, and in 2017 was predeceased by her younger son, Justin Collin Roman.
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