Background
Brasfield was born in Smithville, Mississippi.
Brasfield was born in Smithville, Mississippi.
In 1987, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Brasfield was recruited by George Doctorate. Hay for the Grand Ole Opry in 1944. With his trademark baggy suit, battered hat and rubbery face, he could make audiences laugh before he spoke a word.
He soon became the primary comic on The Prince Albert Show, the Opry’s National Broadcasting Company Radio broadcast, playing off the show’s host, Red Foley.
Assuming the role of a hapless hayseed, he often poked fun at country life—always with good humor. He formed a double act in 1948 with Minnie Pearl, playing what she referred to as "double comedy" in which each of them delivered alternating punch lines and neither played the straight manitoba
Some of these routines were broadcast on the Opry"s live American Broadcasting Company television network show from 1955-1956. He lived in Hohenwald, called himself the Hohenwald Flash, and often mentioned the local restaurant (which he once owned), the Snip-Snap-and-Bite, in his routines.
Brasfield sometimes did ventriloquist routines with a dummy named Bocephus, after whom Hank Williams, Senior nicknamed his then-infant son Hank Williams, Junior.
And also did comedy with June Carter. In March 1956, Brasfield appeared with Elvis Presley at Atlanta"s Fox Theatre. In A Face in the Crowd (1957) he played Andy Griffith’s ex-con sidekick, and appeared in Country Music Holiday (1958).
Heart failure combined with an ongoing problem with alcohol led to his death at age 48 in 1958 in Martin, Tennessee.
He is buried in Smithville.