Jimmy Ray McBride

LHS '65

April 28, 1947 - January 6, 2026

Jimmy Ray McBride, 78, of Hazel Green, passed away on Wednesday, January 07, 2026.

Jim McBride was a father, a grandfather, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a friend, and a confidant. He was kind, loving, funny, and compassionate. A member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, he was the epitome of three chords and the truth. He was a mentor who wrote with more than his fair share of young songwriters who had the same dream he had many years before.

Jimmy Ray McBride was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on April 28, 1947. He was a proud graduate of Lee High School. Jim was a dreamer who showed everyone that dreams can come true. He loved travel and adventure. He had a deep love of baseball, especially for his St. Louis Cardinals. He loved life and believed experiences and time spent with family and loved ones far exceeded material things.

He was loved by many. But none more than his family.

Jim is survived by his wife, Jeanne Ivey McBride; his two sons, Brent McBride (Leann) and Wes McBride (Laura Lockhart); his stepdaughter, Amy Rawlinson (Scott); his granddaughter, Kinsey McBride; three step grandchildren, Cameron Widman (Jack), Lizzie Rawlinson, and Ben Rawlinson; his sister, Teresa McBride Portzer (Layne), two nephews, Daniel Prince (Nicole) and Joseph Prince (Michelle), along with great nephews, a great niece, numerous cousins and friends. Jim was preceded in death by his father, James Alvin McBride, and his mother, Helen Hillis McBride.

Per his wishes, there will be a small graveside service for immediate family only. There will be a Celebration of Life in the coming weeks, where the family would love for everyone to come help them celebrate Jim’s life and legacy. Details will be made available as soon as they are finalized.

A private graveside will be held. Berryhill Funeral Home is assisting the family. 

Wikipedia has the following information about Jim:

Early life

McBride was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on April 28, 1947. His parents were James Alvin and Helen Hillis McBride. His grandfather was a sharecropper in Alabama. McBride grew up listening to country music on WBHP with his mother. On Saturday nights, his entire family listened to the Grand Ole Opry.

He attended Rison Elementary, and Lee Junior High, before graduating from Lee High School in 1965.

McBride spent his younger years reading about songs, especially in the magazine Country Song Roundup. His favorite writers were Hank Williams and Don Gibson. He wrote his first song when he was twelve years old and began writing full-time at eighteen.

In the 1970s, McBride brought his songs to Curly Putman, a fellow songwriter from Alabama who had started Tree Publishing in Nashville, Tennessee. Putman became McBride's mentor and friend. In the early 1970s, The Hagers recorded five of his songs and performed them on the television show Hee Haw. However, McBride did not make money from these recordings.

Frustrated by his lack of success selling songs, McBride stopped writing. He worked for the U.S. Post Office for fourteen years. In 1980, McBride told co-writer Roger Murrah that he would quit his job and move to Nashville if their song "A Bridge That Just Won’t Burn" was recorded as a single. McBride says, "Roger called me one night and said ‘I guess you need to pack your bags, we’ve got Conway’s next single.’ I quit the post office the day after Christmas, 1980."

(Editor's Note: The news of Jim's death was included on ABC World News Tonight with David Muir. To see some of the many tributes made to Jim, follow this link to his Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=jim%20mcbride%20songwriter

Jim's Song About Growing Up in Huntsville

"Dixie Boy"

(Editor's Note: The closed caption lyrics in the video below were auto-generated and contain many errors. Just listen to the words instead of relying on the closed captions."

Like most of you, I was shocked with the news of Jim McBride's death. There is not enough space or time to give Jim the tribute he deserves. I venture to say he is the most beloved and bragged about member of the group composed of the Lee High School Classes of '64-'66. He was a friend to all. We will alway remember him sharing his songs with us at one of our class reunions, and many of us attended one of his many songwriter's sessions. I once drove over to Jackson, Tennessee, one Friday night to see him perform, and he sang "Dixie Boy" in my honor. I remember the great bond between him and our other classmate, Terry Preston, LHS '64. Our hearts go out to his wife and our classmate Jeanne Ivey McBride, LHS' 66, in her loss. We share with her the grief of losing a friend and classmate. 

Email Address Problems

The following email addresses were not able to receive last week's notice:

cmcmahon331@charter.net

mateudam@aol.com 

These were returned because their email boxes were full:

jimjohnson98@gmail.com

mecdajmykiki2850@gmail.com

Last Week's Questions, Answers, And Comments

Delores McBride Kilgore, LHS '66 , "Thank you."

Kathy Harris Jones, LHS '66, "Jim McBride  passed away today.  As soon as his obit comes out I will forward it.   But I wanted to let you know so that you can say a prayer for Jeanne.  They had taken a walk on Monday and gotten  back to the house.  Jeanne picked up the mail and went in the house to sit down.  Jim apparently fell off the porch somehow and never regained consciousness.  His cousin is a good friend of ours and that's how I learned of it..  They took him off life support today.  So it may have been some kind of medical emergency that caused the fall.  I don't know how far off the ground their porch is.  I did see a little blurb about his death on channel 19 (CBS) tonight.   No details of course....only that we lost a country music icon today."