Jack Donald Hale's Obituary
Jack Donald Hale, loving father and husband, passed at home in Kingston Springs, Tennessee, on Monday, August 12, 2024, at age 97.
Jack was born May 12, 1927, in Memphis, Tennessee to the late John D. “J.D.” Hale and Bertha Winfrey “Birdie” Cartledge of Scott, Mississippi. In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his first wife, Elizabeth Ruth Dickey, and brothers, Ralph Gordon Hale and Malcolm David Hale.
Jack was born in Memphis, TN, where his father and pregnant mother had taken his older brothers to be safe from the devastating Mississippi River flood of 1927. He grew up in the Mississippi Delta, including Scott in Bolivar County where his father was the general manager for the Delta and Pine Land Company. After the early death of his father when Jack was just three years old, the family moved to Cleveland, Mississippi.
When Jack was a teenager, he picked up the trombone and learned to read music. He began playing with local dance bands from Delta State Teachers College (now Delta State University) and at juke joints in the outskirts of Cleveland, MS. He attended Mississippi State University for a year, then enlisted in the Navy, serving in the Navy Air Corps until after the end of World War II.
Jack and his trombone were practically synonymous. He was such a versatile musician who could play well in any genre and was one of the top session musicians throughout his seven-decade career. He loved playing music and the great friendships it brought.
He toured with the Dean Hudson Orchestra in the late 1940s and played with Louis Armstrong and Tony Bennett, among other artists. His first recording session was with the Dean Hudson Orchestra at Nola Studios in New York City in 1947.
In 1947, he married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Dickey. They were happily married for 37 years until Ruth’s untimely death in 1984. Their son, Jack Dickey Hale, is a successful musician and producer in Nashville, TN.
During the 1950s, Jack was a member of the Memphis Symphony and at one concert performed the difficult trombone solo in “Ravel’s Bolero” without a hitch. In the late 1950s, he formed the Jack Hale Orchestra, broadcasting from the top of the Peabody Hotel on weekends. He did a lot of jingles, primarily with Pepper-Tanner, a jingle production company in Memphis, and that led to a major leap in his recording career.
In the 1960s, Jack owned a Memphis music store, American Music, supplying musicians and high school bands with top-level musical instruments. He wrote numerous songs for high school bands with his brother Ralph who was the distinguished band director at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis. Those works are still being used worldwide today.
Jack always considered himself “a side man – just a session player,” and, beginning in the 1960s, he worked with scores of great artists. A brief sampling includes Joan Baez, Box Tops (The Letter), Petula Clark, Robert Cray, Neil Diamond (yes, that famous horn line on Sweet Caroline!), the Doobie Brothers (albums What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Best of the Doobies, Takin’ It to the Streets), Aretha Franklin (Live at Filmore West), Buddy Guy, Al Green (Let’s Stay Together and all of Al’s hits that had a horn section), Isaac Hayes (more great horn lines in Theme From Shaft), Etta James, John Mayer, Ronnie Milsap, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley (In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds), Buffy St. Marie, Stephen Stills, Rod Stewart, B.J. Thomas, James Taylor, U2, Jack White and Alicia Keys, John Prine, Tony Joe White, Boz Skaggs, and many others. He toured with the Doobie Brothers, Stephen Stills, and Bruce Willis and the Accelerators, and appeared in the documentaries “Rattle and Hum” (U2) and Martin Scorcese’s tribute to the blues, “Lightning in a Bottle.”
In addition to music, Jack loved his family and friends intensely and revered the natural world, especially trees and birds, and worried about humans destroying Nature and our environment. He was in awe of the Universe, black holes, super colliders/particle accelerators – and what we don’t know. He talked about how big the Universe is and how little we are, not just in size, but in importance. He was a cerebral person, yet humble and thoughtful, loyal and dedicated, caring and generous.
He is survived by his beloved wife and partner of almost 30 years, Judy B. Greenwood of Kingston Springs, Tennessee, and his son, Jack Dickey Hale (wife-Karen) of Nashville, Tennessee.
The family wishes to thank the kind and caring staff at AseraCare Hospice as well as wonderful physicians and nurses who cared for him at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Primary Care Medical Group, and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
On Thursday, August 29, 2024, a private graveside service will be held at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.
Peace comes within the souls of men when they realize their oneness with the Universe.
- Black Elk
Plant a tree in honor of Jack and think of him when you see a beautiful butterfly, bluebirds and goldfinches, or other wonders of Nature.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you support organizations that honor Jack’s values and loyalties: Friends of the Library, South Cheatham County Library, 358 N. Main St., Kingston Springs, TN 37082, The Nashville Rescue Mission, Linda & Mike Curb Women’s Center, 1716 Rosa Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN 37208, or a charity that works to save the environment.
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