{"id":48876,"date":"2025-04-25T08:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T08:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/48876\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T08:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T08:17:12","slug":"lulu-roman-dead-at-78-hee-haw-star-who-called-herself-the-fat-girl-passes-away-after-tragic-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/48876\/","title":{"rendered":"Lulu Roman dead at 78: Hee Haw star who called herself ‘the fat girl’ passes away after tragic struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The music and comedy worlds are in mourning with news of the passing of Hee Haw star Lulu Roman.<\/p>\n

The performer – who appeared on over 150 episodes of Hee Haw from 1969 to 1992 – passed away at 78 on Wednesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her son Damon Roman confirmed she passed in Bellingham, Washington, where she moved to be with her son seven months earlier.<\/p>\n

No cause of death was released at this time, though her former publicist Ben Laurro released a statement to People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘Lulu Roman was unsung. She endured much adversity in her life that helped her become a joy to others,’ Laurro’s brief statement read.<\/p>\n

Of her role in Hee Haw, she previously said that she had been ‘hired to be the fat girl’ as she spoke publicly about her health journey on The 700 Club<\/a> in 2010. She later lost 200 pounds after the show had ended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The music and comedy worlds are in mourning with news of the passing of Hee Haw star Lulu Roman<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The performer – who appeared on over 150 episodes of Hee Haw from 1969 to 1992 – passed away at 78 on Wednesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lulu was born Bertha Louise Hable on May 6, 1946 in Dallas, in a home for unwed mothers, and she was placed in Buckner Orphans Home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was born with a thyroid condition that would lead to her obesity, though she was never adopted.<\/p>\n

After graduating from W.W. Samuell High School in Dallas in 1964, she started performing a comedy act called\u00a0Lulu Roman, the World\u2019s Biggest Go-Go Dancer.<\/p>\n

She primarily performed at a number of Dallas clubs owned by the now-infamous assassin Jack Ruby, who gunned down Lee Harvey Oswald on live television.<\/p>\n

One of Lulu’s fans was country music star Buck Owens, with Lulu stating in a 2020 interview<\/a>\u00a0that he, ‘liked my sense of humor.’<\/p>\n

‘He told me once that he\u2019d just sit and observe me. I said, “Lord have mercy!”\u00a0He said it was real interesting: “You\u2019re a master at quick wit.” I wasn\u2019t sure what he was talking about, but I got hold of it later,’ she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was Owens who would ultimately recommend her to Hee Haw producers and pave the way for her appearance on the show’s first episode in 1969.<\/p>\n

She added in a 2024 interview<\/a>, ‘They needed one boy next door, one fat dumb man, one fat dumb woman.\u00a0Buck said, “I got your girl! She\u2019s in Dallas!”‘<\/p>\n

\"She <\/p>\n

She was born with a thyroid condition that would lead to her obesity, though she was never adopted.<\/p>\n

\"She <\/p>\n

She primarily performed at a number of Dallas clubs owned by the now-infamous assassin Jack Ruby, who gunned down Lee Harvey Oswald on live television<\/p>\n

\"She <\/p>\n

She converted to Christianity in 1973 and convinced the Hee Haw producers not only to re-hire her, but also allow her to sing<\/p>\n

While she originally only had background roles, she would ultimately get speaking roles in regular segments like The Culhanes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An arrest for drug possession (marijuana, speed, LSD and meth) in 1971 lead to her exiting the show for a few years as she was sentenced to four years in prison.<\/p>\n

She converted to Christianity in 1973 and convinced the Hee Haw producers not only to re-hire her, but also allow her to sing.<\/p>\n

‘After I gave my heart to Jesus, the Lord started working on me and making me into quite a different person than when I started,’ she said in an undated interview.<\/p>\n

That led to a new gospel singing career, releasing the first of her dozen albums in 1974, despite never having any formal training for singing.<\/p>\n

She was inducted into the\u00a0Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and appeared in Hee Haw Honeys, The Love Boat and the 1972 movie Corky.<\/p>\n

Roman published her autobiography\u00a0This Is My Story; This Is My Song in 2019, two years after her youngest son Justin passed away in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The music and comedy worlds are in mourning with news of the passing of Hee Haw star Lulu…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[92,77,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-48876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-tvshowbiz","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114397619604052201","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}