Jake Flint’s new wife, Brenda, has opened up in public for the first time since his unexpected death at the age of 37, sharing how utterly devastated her loss has left her.
The Red Dirt country artist and Oklahoma native died just hours after he married the former Brenda Wilson on Saturday (Nov. 26). His manager, Brenda Cline, turned to Facebook to share the tragic news, calling him ”the funniest, most hilarious, hardest working, dedicated artist I have ever worked with in my career.”
Flint’s publicist, Cliff Doyal, tells the Oklahoman that Flint died in his sleep on the night of his wedding. No cause of death is yet available.
Brenda Flint initially reacted to her husband’s untimely passing by posting a video from their wedding from just hours before, writing, “I don’t understand.”
She turned to Facebook again on Tuesday (Nov. 29), sharing that she didn’t know how to process everything that she was going through.
“We should be going through wedding photos but instead I have to pick out clothes to bury my husband in,” she writes. “People aren’t meant to feel this much pain. My heart is gone and I just really need him to come back.”
“I can’t take much more,” she added. “I need him here.”
Flint’s sudden passing resulted in a number of social media tributes from friends, fans and loved ones.
“He was not only a client, he was a dear friend and just a super nice guy,” Doyal explains to the Oklahoman. “As you can see from the outpouring on social media, he was loved by everybody. I think a lot of it was just that he was a people person, and he had an amazing sense of humor. He made everybody laugh, and he made everybody feel welcome.”
Born in 1985 and raised in Holdenville, Okla., Flint’s first introduction to music came from his father, who exposed him to artists including Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, John Prine and others, according to his official website.
When Flint’s father was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), he asked some musician friends to teach his son guitar. That led to Flint attending bluegrass festivals, which in turn led him to performing.
Flint subsequently built a strong touring base, playing both solo acoustic and full-band dates across Oklahoma and Texas. He released his most recent single, “What’s Your Name,” in 2020. His touring calendar included dates all the way through May of 2023 in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Funeral plans for Jake Flint have not been announced publicly. A GoFundMe set up to raise money for his wife and family had raised more than $6,000 of its $10,000 goal as of Wednesday afternoon (Nov. 30).
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May they rest in peace …