A Song for a Brother: Jimmy Fortune’s Final Farewell to Lew DeWitt
On a quiet August morning in 1990, the chapel in Staunton, Virginia, held more than silence—it held memories, music, and mourning.
At the front stood Jimmy Fortune, hands trembling slightly as he clutched the microphone, his eyes fixed on the casket of Lew DeWitt. The man who had once filled arenas with soaring tenor harmonies had now slipped beyond this world, leaving behind a legacy that stretched far beyond the stages he once lit with The Statler Brothers.
Jimmy had stepped into Lew’s place in the group years before, but never into his shadow. He didn’t try to imitate him. Instead, he carried Lew’s spirit forward with reverence, not replacement. But on this day, none of that mattered. Jimmy Fortune wasn’t standing there as a Statler Brother. He was standing there as a friend. As a brother. As someone who loved Lew beyond the music.
The room was filled with those who had known Lew’s kindness, his laughter, his brilliance. Fellow artists. Family. Fans turned lifelong companions. But in that moment, all eyes were on Jimmy as he stepped to the mic and whispered, “This song is for you, brother…”
No spotlight. No encore.
Just one voice—cracking, then lifting—humming the familiar refrain of one of Lew’s favorite tunes. And as Jimmy sang, not to a crowd but to the man who had once harmonized beside him in spirit, something sacred took hold of the room.
It wasn’t a performance. It was a benediction.
The kind of farewell you only give once in a lifetime.
Tears streamed quietly. Heads bowed. The music didn’t fill the chapel—it floated through it, like a gentle memory returning home. Each note seemed to wrap around the hearts of those present, reminding them not of what was lost, but of what had been shared.
When the final note faded, Jimmy lowered the microphone and stepped back.
The silence that followed was not emptiness—it was reverence.
Because on that day, in that room, through that voice, the music remembered.
And somewhere beyond the veil, Lew DeWitt was listening.
