Jim Nabors, 87, dies at Diamond Head home

Hawaii friends of beloved entertainer Jim Nabors say he wasn’t far removed from the gentle, amiable television character, Gomer Pyle, that first brought him fame in the 1960s.

Nabors, a longtime Honolulu resident, died early Thursday morning at his Diamond Head home after several years of declining health. He was 87.

His husband, Stan Cadwallader, said Nabors was admitted to the emergency room at The Queen’s Medical Center on Nov. 22 with a case of shingles. He returned home for Thanksgiving and celebrated the holiday with about 30 guests.

Cadwallader said Nabors went back to the hospital for a series of tests Wednesday and asked his doctors to let him return home. “That’s what his wishes were,” Cadwallader said. “He wanted to die at home, and he got that wish.”

His passing saddened thousands of friends, acquaintances and fans from Hawaii and around the world.

Nabor’s low-key nature is what endeared him to many in Hawaii. Nabors said he had been able to develop “solid” friendships here, something that was hard to do in Hollywood. One exception was comedian Carol Burnett, his close friend for 52 years.

Burnett was among the 300 guests who celebrated Nabors’s 85th birthday at his Diamond Head home in 2015.

“Every year he was always the first guest on my variety show. I considered him my ‘good luck charm,’” Burnett said in a statement Thursday. “My heart is heavy. I’m grateful he was a large part of my life. I miss him. I love him.”

In a Facebook post, former Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano described Nabors as a dear friend. “Humble, down-to-earth despite world-wide fame, he loved Hawaii and its people and I believe he was loved by all who knew him or of him,” he said.

“Jim was one of a kind. We will miss him.”

Diamond Head Theatre Artistic Director John Rampage remembered Nabors as “a great man” and “a gentleman.”

Rampage met the actor/singer in the early 1980s when they were working at the MGM Theatre in Reno, Nev. The working relationship was renewed in 1997 with the start of Nabors’s holiday concerts, “A Merry Christmas with Friends & Nabors,” at the Hawaii Theatre.

“Friends & Nabors” was such a success that it was presented annually through 2006, with the star donating his time and expertise. A masterful storyteller, Nabors gave members of DHT’s Shooting Stars youth program a prominent place in the production.

“Every year he would tell this story on stage during ‘Friends & Nabors,’ that in one of the early years he wouldn’t wear full makeup … or his hairpiece during rehearsal,” Rampage said. “So for the actual performance the kids were lined up on stage and he walked by, and one of the little kids said, ‘Oh, you got new hair!’

“He thought that was the funniest thing.”

Nabors’ beginnings

Born June 12, 1930, in Sylacauga, Ala., Nabors moved to New York in 1951 after he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Alabama. In 1954 he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment.

In a 2013 interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Nabors said he was doing a Gomer-type character in a nightclub but had never formally acted before auditioning for “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“When they gave me the part, it scared the heck out of me,” he said.

Nabors became an instant success as Gomer Pyle, the unworldly, lovable gas station attendant who would exclaim “Gollee!” The character became so popular that Nabors got his own spinoff, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” in 1964 that ran for five years on CBS.

Nabors went on to pursue other opportunities but was a proud supporter and public advocate of the Marine Corps for the rest of his life. The Marine Corps responded by giving Gomer Pyle an honorary promotion to lance corporal in 2001 and a promotion to corporal in 2007. Nabors himself was designated an honorary Marine Corps sergeant at the service branch’s 238th birthday ball in 2013.

Retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Hank Stackpole, a Honolulu resident, said Nabors was “devoted to the Marine Corps and vice versa.”

“He spent a lot of time giving his time and his voice to the Marines. He had the entire Marine Corps Band Drum and Bugle Corps at his house and he stood there and shook hands and took pictures one after the other with all of them,” Stackpole said. “It really touched my heart to see him do that.”

For two seasons beginning in 1969, Nabors hosted “The Jim Nabors Hour,” a variety show, on CBS. When it ended he worked in Las Vegas showrooms and in concert theaters across the country while continuing to appear on television.

Although Nabors’ strong operatic baritone could surprise people who knew him only as Gomer Pyle, he was a successful recording artist with more than two dozen albums. Among them was the soundtrack album for his 1981 television special, “Christmas in Hawaii with Jim Nabors,” which was released on Tom Moffatt’s Bluewater label.

Hawaii home

Nabors had first come to Hawaii in 1965. He sold his home in Los Angeles’ Bel Air neighborhood and moved to islands in 1978, buying a macadamia and flower farm in Hana, Maui, and later, his oceanfront home at Diamond Head.

For several years in the late 1970s, Nabors appeared 10 months out of the year at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Dome in a “Polynesian Extravaganza.” He ended his run at the Waikiki landmark in 1981.

“I was completely burned out,” he later recalled. “I’d had it with the bright lights.”

In 1994, at age 63, Nabors underwent a liver transplant after suffering liver failure from hepatitis B.

He was also a familiar face at the Indianapolis 500 where he sang “Back Home Again in Indiana” almost every year without fail for more than four decades. When Nabors sang it for the first time — in 1972 — he wrote the lyrics on his hand to be sure he got them right.

Illness forced him to cancel his appearance in 2007, the first one he had missed in more than 20 years. He was back performing at Indy in 2008, saying, “It’s always the main part of my year. It just thrills you to your bones.”

Nabors’s final performance at Indy was in 2014.

In his 2013 interview with the Star-Advertiser, Nabors said that despite his success, he never felt “special.”

“The celebrity part is not real. It’s just what we do for a living,” he said.

“I always try to handle it just like my folks brought me up: to be nice and polite.”

Nabors and Cadwallader met in Hawaii in the mid-1970s. They were married in Seattle in 2013, a month after same-sex marriage became legal there.

Cadwallader recalled how Nabors said he wanted to be like Gomer, “to be that good.”

“And he was.”

Funeral plans have not been announced. In addition to his husband, Nabors is survived by a niece, Angela Danelutt, and nephew, Ricky Danelutt.

JIM NABORS’ CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

1962

Hired for a one-time appearance as Gomer Pyle on “The Andy Griffith Show.” The character proves so popular that Nabors is made a member of the cast and appeared in 23 episodes

1964

Makes his television network debut as a serious baritone vocalist with performances on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Danny Kaye Show”

1964

Becomes the star of his own sitcom, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” above, which runs for five seasons on CBS

1966

Releases the first of 28 record albums, six of which are certified “gold” for sales of more than 500,000 copies or “platinum” for sales of more than 1 million copies by the Recording Industry Association of America

1969

Hosts his own variety show, “The Jim Nabors Hour,” on CBS for two seasons and earns a daytime Emmy nomination

1972

Sings “Back Home Again in Indiana” at the Indianapolis 500 for the first time, pictured below; returns almost every year through 2014

1980s

Supporting roles in friend Burt Reynolds’ films “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982), pictured above, “Stroker Ace” (1983) and “Cannonball Run II” (1984)

1991

Receives star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

1997

Presents “A Merry Christmas With Friends & Nabors,” at the Hawaii Theatre. Nabors presents the show annually through 2006 and does a final “Friends & Nabors” show in 2009

2001

Marine Corps gives Gomer Pyle an “honorary promotion” to lance corporal, followed by “honorary promotion” to corporal in 2007. Nabors himself is given the rank of honorary sergeant in 2013

2013

Marries Stan Cadwallader, his partner of 38 years, pictured, in Seattle, a month after same-sex marriage is made legal in Washington state

Staff writer Rosemarie Bernardo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.