Getty Roy Clark pictured in June 2016.
Barbara Joyce Rupard married her husband, country superstar Roy Clark, in 1957. Throughout the course of their married life, they had five children as they made their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On November 15, Roy Clark died at the age of 85 at their home after suffering from complications caused by pneumonia, his publicist confirmed in a statement to Heavy.com.
Although Clark is mostly remembered to his hosting the country variety show, Hee Haw, from 1967 and 1997, Clark was a celebrated artist in his own right and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry as well as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Clark is quoted in the press release as saying, “A TV camera goes right through your soul. If you’re a bad person, people pick that up. I’m a firm believer in smiles. I used to believe that everything had to be a belly laugh. But I’ve come to realize that a real sincere smile is mighty powerful.”
Here’s what you need to know about the woman who knew Roy Clark best:
1. Barbara Was Clark’s Second Wife
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Clark told PBS in 2016 interview that he married his first wife when he was 17 in 1950. At the time, Clark had been a banjo, mandolin and guitar prodigy. Despite this, Clark decided to try and work as a carhop, a waiter who worked in a drive-in restaurant. Clark goes on to say that his career change didn’t work and he returned to music in his 20s. Clark added that by the time he met Barbara Rupard, he was back in music and the couple was driving to gigs while staying “in cheap hotels,” until Clark got his break on The Tonight Show.
2. While on the Road, Barbara Nearly Died From an Atopic Pregnancy
Clark wrote an extensive article for the Christian magazine Guideposts in January 2014. He detailed the time when he and Barbara drove around the country. In one incident, the pair were forbidden from joining a church because his profession was seen as decadent. In another incident, while Barbara was driving late one night, having been complaining of pain for weeks, felt like she could not go on. Clark says he drove through the night until he found a hospital in Conway, Arkansas. It was there, that a doctor revealed Barbara had suffered an atopic pregnancy. Clark said he prayed, “Lord, being a successful entertainer doesn’t seem so important to me now. I love Barbara … she means more to me than anything. She’s all I really care about. Please help her.” Clark said that Barbara made a full recovery and that he credited his faith with helping the couple through the incident.
3. Clark Said Barbara Was as Responsible for His Success as Anyone
Clark said in an 2004 interview with the Toledo Blade, “She is as much responsible for this than anyone else. In 1960, it was just her and I on the road. She’d drive to one engagement and I’d sleep. Then I’d do my thing while she would sleep. We were on the road for 347 days that first year… My wife teases me because when I come back from a long trip, I have this guitar next to this chair I relax in and I’ll grab it and start to strum it. She’ll say ‘Don’t you ever get tired?’ And I’ll say, ‘No, I never get tired of music.'”
Clark has a tribute on the American Banjo Museum’s official website. His tribute reads, “In a profession where success is often at the expense of family, Roy Clark has been married to his loving and supportive wife, Barbara, for nearly 60 years.”
4. Clark Said the Most Impressive Thing About a Documentary on His Life; Was That the Filmmakers Got Barbara to Talk
In 2002, TNN aired a documentary, The Life and Times of Roy Clark, Clark said in a subsequent interview that, “Well, I’m sure the office did; a lot of that stuff is handled while I’m off somewhere tuning guitars (chuckles)! About all I had to do was sit and talk with an easygoing woman. In fact, I was impressed with the way she got my wife to talk. [She] also said that the interviewer had been so easy to talk to.” Clark also said that it was a conversation with his wife about a documentary about Roy Acuff that got the ball rolling on his own film.
5. Clark Decided to Settle in Tulsa Immediately After a Soviet Union Concert Tour
Clark told 405 Magazine in May 2017 in an interview that after his 1976 sold out concert tour in the Soviet Union, his first gig back in the U.S. was in Tulsa. Clark said, “I was living back east, and in 1976 I went on a concert tour of Russia. I was the first country music entertainer to ever perform in the Soviet Union. When I got back to the States, one of my first shows was in Tulsa. So in one tour, I left as a Yankee and came back as an Okie.”
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