We're here today at Sawnee view Gardens it's a cemetery in Cumming Georgia and
we're here to pay our respects today to a gentleman known as Junior Samples
you probably recognize the name from hee haw Fame but before we head over to see
juniors resting place I'd like to carry you to the resting place of one of my
best friends I know you clicked on this video so that you can see and pay your
respects to Junior samples but also here in this cemetery is buried one of my
best friend's she was taken away from us way too early and there's a gentleman on
YouTube he has a channel called sidestep adventures where he goes out and he
finds forgotten cemeteries and he has a saying where people pass away twice once
physically and then the second time they pass away which is actually the saddest
time is when no one remembers their name so my best friend is Tracy Tuggle and I
don't want anyone to ever say that she passed away twice I'll let you know just
a little bit about Tracy she was a single mom and she raised two beautiful
young daughters Kristin and Amy and she passed away way too soon she had just
turned 50 years old on June the 20th she passed away July the 11th 2013 Tracy had
a few things that she just really really loved two of them were her daughter's
she also loved Jesus but if you ask her what her passions were she loved NASCAR
racing and she really enjoyed playing poker from time to time
nothing illegal just free games and local places so Tracy I love you I'm
leaving this for you
so now that we've paid our respects to Tracy let's go over and visit junior
samples and honor of Tracy I'm gonna put this video out on our birthday June the
20th so if you want to find the final resting place of junior samples as you
pull into the cemetery go past the office
just stay to your right go past the mausoleum and right in front of us
you'll see a large cross that's kind of where we're gonna be going you just pull
around this way you stay in to your right
bang to your right and then right here is first right right
as you passed across that's where we're going apart and we're gonna walk up this
walkway here and that's where we will visit junior samples so junior is
located in the garden of devotion if you walk right up this path toward the cross
right before you get to the cross
this is juniors final resting place so if you notice on juniors headstone
there's a plaque with a fisherman junior loved to fish and that's basically how
his career got started when he was 40 years old he told a story to a local
radio station about how he had caught this humongous bass
well they informed him that that was the largest Basset had ever been caught
anywhere it was a world record he was they kept trying to get him to find out
where he weighed it and how he knew it come to find out he ended up eating it
well that was released as a novelty record and some of his other stories
were too and that kind of Swat started his career in 1969 the folks at hee haw
asked him to come be a part of their cast
you probably remember junior is the bumbling man and overalls that would pop
up in the cornfield and forget his lines but probably most memorable is his used
car salesman act where he would be selling used cars at sample sales where
the phone number be are five four nine all you got to do is give him a call and
they'll make you a deal and he'd kick the car tire that's where it came from
if you ever wondered where BR 549 came from mr. junior samples now a lot of
folks didn't know Junior had five children and while he was on hee haw
those children would at times make appearances on the show if you remember
the classroom scene where the kids would be there and they had one of their
actors and a dunce hat and the kids would be shouting and throwing paper
wads at him and things like that I think Minnie Pearl was usually the teacher
well five of those kids were juniors
Jr was nominated for a couple of awards also in 1969 and in 1970 he was
nominated for a Country Music Award comedian of the year Jr's weight
fluctuated over the years at times reaching nearly 400 pounds probably had
something to do with his untimely demise on November 13th 1983 at 57 years old
Junior samples passed away of an apparent heart attack
so through the years there were many rumors that surrounded jr. samples one
that really wasn't a rumor but it was more of a practical joke there's one
time he said he was going to run for lieutenant governor here in the state of
Georgia well the media as they do today sometimes took him very serious it was
all just a practical joke one of the things I remember as I was growing up
don't know if it's true couldn't find anything on the internet about it but as
I was growing up someone once said that once he became famous he paved his
driveway or his garage not sure which one with silver dollars couldn't find
any pictures of it couldn't find anything to back that up
but back in the late 70s early 80s that was kind of what the rumor was again
just a rumor
I want to say thanks for joining me today as we paid our respects to jr.
samples and thank you for joining me as I pay my respects to one of my best
friends Tracy if you like this video message you like share and subscribe
until next time the road is closed thanks for the laughter Junior