31 Facts About Jimmy Little

Jimmy Little started his professional career in 1951, as a singer-songwriter and guitarist, which spanned six decades.

Jimmy Little's music was influenced by Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis and American country music artist Jim Reeves.

At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999, Jimmy Little was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and won an ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album.

Jimmy Little was a diabetic with a heart condition and, in 2004, had a kidney transplant.

On 2 April 2012, Jimmy Little died at his home in Dubbo, aged 75 years.

James Oswald Jimmy Little was born on 1 March 1937, a member of the Yorta Yorta people with his mother, Frances, a Yorta Yorta woman and his father, James Jimmy Little Sr, from the Yuin people.

Jimmy Little's mother was a singer and yodeller who had joined Jimmy Sr.

Jimmy Little grew up, the eldest of seven children, on the Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve on the Murray River in New South Wales, about 30 kilometres from Echuca in Victoria.

Jimmy Little is an uncle of writer, soprano, and composer Deborah Cheetham and older brother of the late Aboriginal author and singer-songwriter Betty Little.

The Jimmy Little family moved to his father's tribal land and lived for some years on the New South Wales south coast at Nowra and Moruya.

At the age of 13, Jimmy Little was given a guitar and within a year he was playing at local concerts.

Jimmy Little worked at a towelling factory and supplemented his income with performances at concerts and dances, and TV appearances on Bandstand.

Jimmy Little made his acting debut in the Billy Graham evangelical feature film Shadow of the Boomerang the same year.

Jimmy Little had the role of Johnny, a devout stockman on a cattle station where his American employer's son Bob refers to him as "that nigger".

In October 1963, after 17 singles, Jimmy Little issued his biggest hit with the gospel song, "Royal Telephone", based upon the Burl Ives' version.

Gibb was 17 years old when he wrote "One Road" and Jimmy Little became one of the first artists to record a Gibb song.

Jimmy Little had turned to full-time acting by the 1980s, making his theatre debut in Black Cockatoos before appearing in director Wim Wenders' 1991 film Until the end of the World.

In 1992, Jimmy Little performed at the Tamworth on Parade and Kings of Country roadshows before releasing his 14th album, Yorta Yorta Man, in 1994.

At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 Messenger won the ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album and Jimmy Little was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

Jimmy Little returned in September 2001 with Resonate, an album featuring songs written by Paul Kelly, Don Walker, Bernard Fanning, Brendan Gallagher and Dave Graney.

In 2002 Jimmy Little won the Golden Gospel Award at the Australian Gospel Music Awards for his lifetime support of Australian gospel music.

Jimmy Little sang "Happy Day" with Olivia Newton-John that year.

Jimmy Little released the album Down the Road for ABC Country in 2003.

On 2 April 2012 Jimmy Little died of natural causes in Dubbo, aged 75 years.

Jimmy Little married fellow singer, Marjorie Rose Peters in 1958 and they had one child, Frances Claire Peters-Jimmy Little was born on ca.

In 1990, Jimmy Little was diagnosed with kidney disease, "Unfortunately, I didn't get check-ups often enough or soon enough to realise the possibility that my kidneys could fail".

From 1985, Jimmy Little taught and mentored indigenous music students at the Eora Centre in Redfern, and from 2002 he was an ambassador for literacy and numeracy for the Department of Education.

Since 2000, Jimmy Little was a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney's Koori Centre.

On 2 April 2012, Jimmy Little died at his home in Dubbo, aged 75.

Jimmy Little is survived by his daughter, Frances, and his grandson, James Henry Little.

In 2012, Jimmy Little received the JC Williamson Award, the LPA's highest honour, for their life's work in live performance.