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Lulu Roman, who brought her big-hearted Texas sass and full-throated gospel vocals to the enduring variety show \u201cHee Haw,\u201d<\/a> known for its corn-pone comedy sketches and musical interludes provided by a constellation of country stars, died on April 23 in Bellingham, Wash. She was 78.<\/p>\n Her son and caretaker, Damon Roman, said she died of heart failure at his home, where she had been living.<\/p>\n Ms. Roman\u2019s broad comedic skills and down-home persona proved a valuable asset to \u201cHee Haw,\u201d which debuted on CBS in 1969 as a folksy heartland answer to NBC\u2019s \u201cRowan & Martin\u2019s Laugh-In,\u201d<\/a> a network take on contemporary mod culture known for its Day-Glo graphics and risqu\u00e9 one-liners<\/a> delivered at Gatling-gun pace. It was originally a summer replacement for \u201cThe Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,\u201d<\/a> an even edgier variety show that had run afoul of censors<\/a> for its pointed takes on race relations, drugs, religion and the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n But \u201cHee Haw\u201d was the opposite of hip, and intentionally so. It was the television equivalent of a big country breakfast, heavy on the cheese grits. And it worked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n While the show was initially blasted by critics, its mix of back-40 humor and musical appearances by Johnny Cash<\/a>, Loretta Lynn<\/a> and seemingly every other Nashville star propelled it to television institution status. (Although CBS canceled the show in 1971, \u201cHee Haw\u201d rolled on in syndication, lasting more than a quarter of a century in various iterations.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The show was hosted by the avuncular honky-tonk hitmaker Buck Owens<\/a> and Roy Clark<\/a>, a veritable Hendrix of the haystacks on guitar<\/a>, banjo<\/a> and other instruments. Other regulars included Minnie Pearl<\/a>, with her trademark $1.98 price tag dangling from her flowered straw hat and a voice as dulcet as a record scratch<\/a>, and Misty Rowe<\/a>, who with her plunging necklines and meringue swirl of blond hair was basically a temptress version of Elly May Clampett from \u201cThe Beverly Hillbillies.\u201d<\/p>\n While celebrated for her comic timing and rich vocal stylings, Ms. Roman was under no illusions about her role, which involved frequent punchlines about her weight.<\/p>\n As she put it in a 2020 interview<\/a> with Florida Weekly magazine, the show\u2019s creators were looking for \u201ca gorgeous blonde, one gorgeous brunette, one boy-next-door type, one girl-next-door type, one fat dumb man and one fat dumb woman. And Buck Owens said to them, \u2018I got a fat girl for you, she\u2019s perfect.\u2019\u201d (The \u201cfat dumb man\u201d was Junior Samples.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She was born Bertha Louise Hable on May 6, 1946, at a home for unwed mothers in Pilot Point, Texas, north of Dallas. Abandoned by her mother, she lived with a great-grandmother until \u201cthe poor thing could no longer handle me,\u201d Ms. Roman said in a 2016 interview<\/a> with The Dallas Morning News. (\u201cLulu\u201d was a derivation of her middle name; the surname she used for most of her life came from an early marriage, which was annulled.)<\/p>\n She then went to live at the Buckner Orphans Home in Dallas, where she stayed until she was 18. She later said that she often cried herself to sleep because the other children were constantly taunting her about her weight and named the school bus \u201cBig Bertha\u201d after her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think food became my drug<\/a> probably the day that they put me in the orphans\u2019 home,\u201d she said in a 2011 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network show \u201cThe 700 Club.\u201d \u201cSugar became my friend, because it didn\u2019t hurt me, and it didn\u2019t talk back to me, and it didn\u2019t call me names.\u201d She added that she was later diagnosed with a thyroid problem.<\/p>\n As a student at nearby W.W. Samuell High School, she found some solace in music and theater, but she also started to dull her pain with drugs, a habit that eventually led to an outsize appetite for marijuana, methamphetamine and LSD. (She told The Dallas Morning News that she once dropped as many as 25 tabs of acid in a single night.)<\/p>\n After graduating in 1964, Ms. Roman eventually gave comedy a shot, finding work through a dancer friend at a Dallas nightclub, where she came up with an act called \u201cLulu Roman, the World\u2019s Biggest Go-Go Dancer.\u201d It was there that she caught the eye of Mr. Owens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe next thing you know, I\u2019m on a plane to Hollywood and riding a limo to the CBS studios,\u201d Ms. Roman said in 2006. \u201cThe first person I saw was Carol Burnett, with my mouth wide open. She said, \u2018Shut your mouth, child. You\u2019re fixin\u2019 to be one of us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Initially, \u201cHee Haw\u201d seemed like an odd fit for an edgy comic whose musical tastes ran to Grand Funk Railroad and the Moody Blues. \u201cI was the proverbial hippie,\u201d she told Florida Weekly. \u201cI was into the drug scene.\u201d<\/p>\n To \u201cHee Haw\u201d fans, though, she fit right in as a character in running skits like \u201cThe Culhanes<\/a>,\u201d featuring four phlegmatic family members seated on a sofa and exchanging deadpan punchlines, and \u201cLulu\u2019s Truck Stop<\/a>,\u201d on which she played the take-no-guff proprietor.<\/p>\n Despite her success, she still battled her demons. After multiple drug arrests and suicide attempts, she found Christianity \u2014 and sobriety, she said \u2014 in 1973. \u201cWhat I was unconsciously trying to do was kill myself,\u201d she said. \u201cI tried many times, but it never worked out. I had no idea that God had any kind of a calling on my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Her musical star turns singing gospel<\/a> on \u201cHee Haw\u201d eventually blossomed into a second career, which continued after her run on the show ended in the 1990s. Over the years, she released more than a dozen albums on Christian and independent labels. Her 2013 album of <\/em>standards, \u201cAt Last,\u201d included \u201cI Will Always Love You,\u201d<\/a> a duet with the song\u2019s composer, Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Roman, who was married multiple times, leaves no immediate survivors apart from her son Damon; another son, Justin Roman, died in 2017.<\/p>\n She continued to struggle with her weight into the 2000s. Finally, when she was nearly 400 pounds and experiencing myriad health and mobility problems, she had lap-band surgery. Along with changes to her diet and routine, the procedure helped her lose more than 200 pounds, dropping her to about a size 14 from around a 58.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of people say, \u2018You\u2019ve achieved so much,\u2019\u201d Ms. Roman told The Dallas Morning News. \u201cI guess when I look back, I have. But it was not that I wanted to achieve anything. It was survival. It still is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n