Jeris Ross

American country music singer born in Wood River, Ilinois, November 1951, Jeris Hughes. She was married to Jack Ross (2). Between March of 1972 and January of 1980, she hit the U.S. Country charts 8 times--her top charting songs including "Pictures on Paper", written by Gary Paxton--it peaked at # 17 in 1975. Her next highest was "Old Fashioned Love Song", a song written by Paul Williams--it peaked at #58 in 1972. She attended Illinois State University, where she majored in English. She started her singing career at age of 12 and received theater and speech awards in both high school and college. In 1967, she was the lead singer of The Mice Band, a 6-piece swing band. This was followed by the band Maximus (17) in Illinois. She did local and national jingles for Ray Batts Furniture, Dotson, Captain D's Seafood, and Schlitz Beer. After moving to Nashville, she married Jack Ross, a studio musician, songwriter, and her manager. They were part of the band Woof (5). She then began her solo singing career. She was Cash Box's Country Artist of the Week the week of May 31, 1975. In 1989, as Jeris Ford, she headlined a rock-pop oldies band called the Bop Cats that toured around Oklahoma.