Dubbed “the Den Mother of Music Row,� because of the songwriters she helped during her career, Hall of Fame songwriter Marijohn Wilkin, HSU alumnus, Distinguished Alumnus, Honorary Doctor of Music, and Hall of Leaders inductee passed away at 1:00 a.m Saturday morning at age 86.

A groundbreaking Music row executive, who blazed a trail for all women in today’s Nashville music business, she is mourned by HSU and the Nashville music community.

Marijohn Wilkin

Her songs have been performed by dozens of musical greats, including Johnny Cash, The Beatles, Patsy Cline, Rod Stewart, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, and Ray Price. As a publisher, it was Marijohn who signed a young writer to Buckhorn Music who would change the face of country music and become a show business phenomenon, Kris Kristofferson. Kristofferson was flying helicopters for the Army, and writing and performing in a soldier’s band when a relative of his suggested he contact Wilkin. She encouraged him to write and eventually signed him to Buckhorn Music in 1965.

Marijohn with Kris Kristopherson after writing "One Day at a Time"

We contacted Mr. Kristofferson to ask for a reflection on the life and influence of Marijohn, and he graciously replied, “Marijohn embodied the spirit of the way of life to which I was to commit myself some 40 years ago. A highly respected artist - singer, songwriter, publisher - she was a tough, intelligent, and funny woman making it in a man's world. She taught me more in the first couple of years I was in Nashville about the heart and soul of the Nashville music world than I could ever have learned on my own. I'll be forever grateful to her for saving my life."

Marijohn Wilkin is a native Texan. Born in Kemp, she attended public school in Sanger and a year at Baylor University, before transferring to HSU. She graduated from Hardin-Simmons University in with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941. Marijohn paid her college tuition by singing in the Hardin-Simmons University Cowboy Band as its first female member.

One month after graduation, in February 1941, Marijohn married Bedford Russell, a former star football player for Hardin-Simmons, who had recently earned his airman wings and was a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He was deployed to North Africa in December 1942, and his B-17 was shot down in a fierce battle with German Messerschmitt fighters. He survived the bail-out and was interred in a prisoner of war camp. As he was being transferred with other prisoners aboard an Italian submarine, the boat was sunk by British fighters and all lives were lost.

She taught music in the public school system in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before beginning her long career in the music industry. In Nashville, Marijohn joined the staff of the prestigious publishing company, Cedarwood, where within six months, she penned her first hit song Waterloo which would become a country classic, shortly followed by more to-be-classics: Long Black Veil, PT 109, and Cut Across Shorty. This kind of success earned her Nashville Songwriter International’s highest honor, “The Manny,� placing Marijohn in the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 1975.

Marijohn (second from left) inducted into the Country Music Writer's Hall of Fame with Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash.

The songwriter broadened her scope within the music industry with the formation of a recording back-up vocal group dubbed “The Marijohn Singers.� The group was to be heard on hundreds of Nashville recordings which led to appearances on the then widely viewed “Good Ole Nashville Music� television show.

Coupling the experience gained in the world of music with business acumen, Marijohn established her publishing interest, Buckhorn Music, in 1964. The company began with the hit song GTO written and performed by her son, John “Bucky� Wilkin (Ronny of Ronny & The Daytonas).

Marijohn produced many record sessions, outstanding among those are Marijohn’s own recordings. With an original recording contract with Word Records, Marijohn recorded four albums, all songs self-penned. All four albums are still in distribution and still popular selling favorites today.

By the early 1970’s, Buckhorn’s business was booming, but Maryjohn’s personal life was in disarray. Substance abuse, marital problems, the deaths of her mother and business partner, and prolonged depression led to a spiritual reawakening. As a prayer, she wrote “One Day at a Time.� After Kristofferson helped her complete the song, it became a hit for Marilyn Sellers in 1974, and won a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association in 1975. Charted Top Ten in seven different countries by seven different artists, the song went on to earn a BMI Millionaire award. To date, the song has been recorded over 750 times worldwide in numerous languages, styles, and genres.

In the 1990s, at a time when many of her contemporaries were retiring, Marijohn was enjoying the awesome success of then newcomer LeAnn Rimes, who had recorded not one, but three songs from Marijohn’s publishing company on albums Blue and Unchained, the Early Years. Between 1996 and 2000 numerous artists, including Darryl Singletary, the Dave Matthews Band, and the Chieftains, all recorded Marijohn’s song Long Black Veil, establishing it as a recurrent classic. The Chieftain’s album entitled Long Black Veil was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1996.

Marijohn was inducted into the Southern Songwriters’ Guild Hall of Fame in 1995 and into the North American Country Music Association International as “Hall of Fame Legendary Songwriter� in 1999.

Marijohn received the Hardin-Simmons Distinguished Alumni Award in 1994 and an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from Hardin-Simmons in 2001. The Nashville Songwriter Association International honored Marijohn with the Stephen Foster Award for her many accomplishments in the field of songwriting in 2004, and HSU inducted her into the Hall of Leaders that same year.

She refused an additional medical procedure to correct complications from her coronary artery bypass from 2003, and asked to be moved from Vanderfilt University Medical Center to Alive Hospice at Saint Thomas late last week. Marijohn is survived by her son, John Buck Wilkin. Services were held Monday at 2:30 at Woodlawn Roesch-Patton Funeral Home in Nashville.