After thirty-three years of marriage, no one was more shocked by Naomi Judd’s suicide at the age of seventy-six than her long-time husband, Larry Strickland. Now for the first time since the singer’s suicide, Strickland is speaking out about the tragedy and making it clear to all that his beloved wife lost her life to the unspeakable tragedy. Strickland spoke publicly about his wife’s death at the CMT’s tribute show Noami Judd: A River of Time memorial.
“Namoi never met a stranger,” Larry said from his place on the stage alongside Naomi’s daughters, Ashley and Wynonna Judd.
He added, “Much to my displeasure, she would start a conversation with anyone who made eye contact with her, and we would end up standing 10, 20, 30 minutes on a sidewalk while she talked to a complete stranger about their passions and their dog.”
Larry and Naomi married in 1989. During his talk at the CMT memorial, he spoke about how Judd had taken a solo flight, which was a rare thing for her to do. However, her flight from Vienna, Austria, to Nashville brought her back home to Nashville in time for the County Music Hall of Fame ceremony, which ended up taking place the day following her tragic suicide on April 30, 2022.
“I was really scared to death about her flying alone all the way from Vienna back to Nashville because I knew how fragile she was,” Larry said. “Well, she made the flight home back to Nashville without any problem.”
Following her passing, Strickland received an email from a man who sat next to Naomi Judd on the plane. Strickland called the heartwarming email “a relief and comfort” before he opened up and began to read some statements from the stranger on the plane.
Until much later, the man did not know that Naomi was a famous singer. Nevertheless, they struck up an interesting conversation, and for the “next 90 minutes we spent in each other’s company was not only entertaining, fascinating and enlightening but for me at least, thoroughly enjoyable.”
Larry read from the letter, “It’s a small comfort, I’m sure, but my life seems a lot richer after meeting your wife, however briefly.”
This was when Strickland became emotional, but the stranger’s note highlighted just how much his wife loved him to her dying day.
“Obviously, I didn’t know Naomi at all, but I can tell you she spoke highly and warmly of you and the life you shared together,” Larry read through tears. “Rest assured, she loved you and had no qualms about telling me, a stranger on a plane, that was so.”
During his presentation at the memorial, Larry Strickland became visibly emotional. He expressed his deep gratitude to the man for writing the letter and said that the note brought “great, great pleasure and comfort to me.”
What do you think about Naomi Judd’s husband’s words?