Dean changes his tune over sausage-sale deal

Jimmy Dean is feuding with company that took over his sausage business.
VARINA, Va. (AP) -- With a drawled wisecrack and a sly smile, Jimmy Dean lets slip he has sold all but one share of his stock in Sara Lee Corp., the conglomerate that ditched him as spokesman for the sausage brand that carries his name.
Knowing Dean, this is more than an aside. The 75-year-old multimillionaire, who has made repeated public jabs at Sara Lee, is suing the company, alleging it ruined his image -- a contention Sara Lee strongly disputes.
"I want to believe in people, and I will continue to believe in people," Dean has said. "But they lied to me."
The lawsuit is the latest twist in the colorful life of the entrepreneur and country music legend, who today is semiretired and lives on a 200-acre estate outside Richmond with his wife, Donna, also a singer.
On a recent visit, he seemed almost grandfatherly, lounging in a jogging suit, cooing at his two poodles and sing-talking his big hit, "Big Bad John."
"Ev'ry mornin' at the mine you could see him arrive. He stood six foot six and weighed two forty-five. Kinda broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip. And everybody knew ya didn't give no lip to Big John."
Then he paused. "You know, I might have been the first rapper," he cracked.
Don't be fooled by the charm. Dean developed thick skin as an impoverished youth in Plainview, Texas, and grew an even tougher hide in the entertainment and food industries.
He has tangled with record and television executives, Sara Lee and his own brother -- earning him a reputation as a sharp and sometimes unyielding businessman.
His holdings now include a piece of a New York bank and a chunk of prime property near Washington Dulles International Airport worth millions.
Over the years, Dean has invested in a lime grove, winery, oil wells, residential developments and nursing homes. In the early '90s, his fortune was estimated at $75 million.
A draft of his autobiography due out this fall reveals a savvy and sometimes unbending personality that helped him navigate three careers: country music singer, television host and sausage entrepreneur.
Biography
Growing up in a poor but musical household, Dean learned to play the piano, accordion and harmonica. His father, who was abusive and later abandoned the family, was a songwriter, inventor, singer, preacher and author.
Dean's hit "Big Bad John" topped the country music and pop charts in the 1960s. Dean's popularity also made him a TV star, culminating in "The Jimmy Dean Show," which ran on ABC from 1963 to 1966.
By the late '60s, though, Dean's attention has shifted to an entirely new business -- sausages. Hog prices were plummeting and Dean thought sausages would provide a ready market for the hogs.
In 1969, Jimmy and his brother Don opened the Jimmy Dean Meat Co., capitalizing on childhood experiences of helping the family butcher hogs -- Jimmy whacked the animals over the head with the blunt end of an ax -- and make sausage. After six months, the company was profitable.
But in the 1970s, tensions flared between the two brothers. Jimmy seized control, and Don sold his interest back to the company.
Don, who is now deceased, sued his brother, alleging libel and slander after he said Jimmy badmouthed him and his business practices. The lawsuit was settled in 1980, with both brothers agreeing never to say anything about each other again. Jimmy kept talking, though, and the feud continued.
"For 15 years, we didn't speak or have any contact whatsoever," he wrote in his autobiography.
Sara Lee feud
Now Sara Lee, a Chicago-based maker of apparel, food and household products, is getting a firsthand taste of Dean's wrath.
The company bought the Jimmy Dean sausage company in 1984 but let him go as spokesman last year -- prompting Dean to publicly denounce Sara Lee and accuse the company of dumping because he got old.
Last month, Dean sued Sara Lee in federal court in Lubbock, Texas, for an unspecified amount, contending the company is ruining his image and using his name without his permission.
Dean declined to comment on the suit. But he has said that Sara Lee, after pledging to keep him around, told him he wouldn't be around forever, and the company needed to move on.
The company said the lawsuit has no merit. "We are saddened Mr. Dean has taken these actions after such a long association with the company," Sara Lee said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Until his consulting agreement expired last year, Dean received annual payments to serve as the brand's spokesman, the statement said. The company said it also pays him a "very generous pension in recognition of his contributions as the founder of the Jimmy Dean Meat Co., and we will continue to do so for the rest of his life."
George Cohen, a University of Virginia law professor, said it's difficult to know whether Dean's case has merit, since the details of his agreements with Sara Lee have not been made public. But it's possible that Sara Lee is considering settling, rather than risking more negative publicity, he said.
"If you're Sara Lee, you don't want your name dragged around by someone who's a popular figure," Cohen said.
Indeed, Dean is still bristling. That may explain why he's holding onto that last share of Sara Lee stock entitling him to attend annual stockholders meetings -- despite what he says was a lukewarm reception at the 2003 gathering.
"I may go to the next one," said Dean.