Condolences: Jo Walker-Meador
Jo Walker-Meador, the former Executive Director of the Country Music Association (CMA) died Tuesday night, August 15 in Nashville following a stroke. She was 93. “Jo was a champion for Country music around the world and a groundbreaker for women in the entertainment business,” said CMA Chief Executive Officer Sarah Trahern (pictured here, right, with Walker-Meador at the 2016 Country Music Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony). “On a personal note, I will miss her guidance, humor, and friendship. She was the first meeting I set up before I took this job. She taught me lessons in how to gracefully navigate the Board. She was always diplomatic in her storytelling and she had some great ones to share. Over the last six months she was a little more candid and I always looked forward to our time together. She will be greatly missed by all. My heart is broken.”
Born Edith Josephine Denning, Walker-Meador was one of 10 children raised on a farm near Orlinda, TN. She paid her way through George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville by working as a secretary while also taking night classes in typing and shorthand. After four years as Executive Secretary to the President of Crescent Amusement, Walker-Meador accepted an offer to become Office Manager — and the first paid employee — at the fledgling Country Music Association. “I knew nothing about Country music,” she later admitted in an interview with CountryZone.net. “I knew that Minnie Pearl and Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff were members of the Grand Ole Opry — but I had never been to the Grand Ole Opry.”
She learned the territory quickly — following the resignation of CMA’s founding Executive Director Harry Stone in 1962, Walker-Meador was promoted to take his place. Initially a staff of one, she did whatever had to be done to pursue the best interests of the Association and Country music… and the rest is history. Walker-Meador was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995, and in 2008 her name was installed in Nashville’s Walk of Fame. Meador is survived by her brother Pete Denning, daughter Michelle Walker, and stepchildren Rob and Karen Meador. [Photo Credit: John Russell / CMA]
• Visitation will take place August 22 from 4-7pm at Woodlawn-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home & Memorial Park, 660 Thompson Lane, Nashville, 37204. Following a private burial on Wednesday, Aug. 23, an 11am memorial service will be held at Christ Presbyterian Church, 2323 Old Hickory Blvd., Nashville, 37215. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to the Sarah Cannon Fund at PearlPoint Cancer Support.
