George Jones (A.K.A. “The Possum,” A.K.A. “No Show Jones”) had quite the enthralling life. He was a certified country music hit maker, had a number on interesting life partners (he was once married to Tammy Wynette), and as I’ve already mentioned, had a number of not-so-flattering nicknames. If you ask me, he deserved better than to be compared to an ugly marsupial throughout his entire career. Though he eventually was able to accept his nicknames for what they were, and even had a hit song titled “No Show Jones.” But like most artists and celebrities, Jones’ life was filled with many highs and lows. His drug use and heavy drinking was common knowledge even in his heyday, and the details country music fans didn’t know about his life initially have slowly been filled in the his later years – and the decade or so after his death. A couple of years after “The Possum” turned 50, Jones married his last wife – Nancy Sepulvado – in 1983, and she was determined to save him from his drinking and drug-use ways. She once told The Tennessean that she believed the Lord Almighty had chosen her specifically to help George Jones clean up his life: “God put me with him to help him get the devil out of him. God put me there to do a job and I did it.” He and Nancy stayed together for the remainder of his life, and she was finally able to convince Jones to give up drinking in 1999. There’s a good chance that Sepulvado helped extend his life, and at the very least, helped make his remaining years more “on the rails,” so to speak. She says that he thrived during the sober portion of his life, and also was better at keeping commitments. At the very end of his life, late April of 2013, George Jones was on his death bed in Nashville, Tennessee, and Nancy got a sign from beyond that she had fulfilled the plan God presented to her to set Jones on the right path. She says that as her country music legend husband was taking his last breaths, his eyes opened back up: “We were standing at the foot of the bed and George just hasn’t said nothing, and all of a sudden, he opened his eyes, and I was fixing to go toward him, and the doctor kind of held me back.” The doctor had evidently seen this “passing on behavior” before, and sure enough, only seconds later, George Jones muttered his last couple of sentences. Nancy says his final words went like this: “Well hello there. I’ve been looking for you. My name’s George Jones.” Was that random? Or a confused Jones hallucinating during his last moments on Earth? Nancy didn’t think so. She saw it as confirmation that “The Possum” was entering into the Pearly Gates, and that all of her work to help her husband change had paid off: “He was talking to God. I know in my heart he was talking to God and he has gone to heaven.” His final performance was in Knoxville, Tennessee, on April 6th, and upon leaving the stage, he knew it would be his last show. He famously told his wife: “I just did my last show… and I gave ’em hell.” George was admitted to the hospital shortly thereafter, where he stayed until he passed away on April 26th, 2013, at the age of 81. He closed out his final performance with his signature song, “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” The post George Jones’ Last Words Will Send A Shiver Down Your Spine: “He Was Talking To God” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.