Jake Flint passed away at the age of 37. He didn’t survive the wedding night. The widow is inconsolable
Oklahoma singer-songwriter Jake Flint died in his sleep hours after his wedding, leaving his new bride heartbroken.
Jake, 37, and Brenda were exchanging wedding vows at a remote homestead between Claremore and Owasso near Tulsa on Saturday night. Hours later the groom died in his sleep, The Oklahoman reported. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
On Tuesday, his heartsick bride wrote: ‘We should be going through wedding photos but instead I have to pick out clothes to bury my husband in. People aren’t meant to feel this much pain.’
The shock and grief were apparent in the Oklahoma music community as word spread of his sudden and untimely death.
Jake’s longtime publicist Clif Doyal confirmed the news of the singer’s death, the news outlet reported.
‘He was not only a client, he was a dear friend and just a super nice guy. 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,’ Doyal said.
‘He was an ambassador for Oklahoma Red Dirt music.’Jake’s manager, Brenda Cline, announced his passing in a social media post.
‘With a broken heart and in deep grief I must announce that Jake Flint has tragically passed away,’ Cline wrote. ‘I’ve tried several times today to make a post, but you can’t comment on what you can’t process.’
Though it rained on their wedding day, the weather did not dampen the excited couple’s spirits who said their ‘I do’s’ in front of all their friends and family.
Mike Hosty, a one-man band from the Oklahoma city of Norman who played at the wedding, told a local news outlet. ‘It was rainy, but he’d rented a 40-by-60 circus tent… They put up a bunch of carpets over the mud and then got two pieces of three-and-a-quarter-inch plywood and set it on the ground — and that was my stage. Jake goes, ‘Is that gonna be all right for you?’ And I go, ‘Jake, that’s perfect.’ A piece of plywood or a flatbed trailer is where I shine.’
He said: ‘I still have the mud in my old van… but it was just a fun wedding. And it’s just a tragedy what happened.’
Jake, a Red Dirt singer/songwriter, was from the rural Mounds, Oklahoma.
Born in 1985, Jake was raised in the oilfield boom town of Holdenville in south eastern Oklahoma, the son of a wildcat oilman. He also grew up with his ‘hard-working mom’ according to his biography, and a single sibling.
According to his bio, he was transplanted to Tulsa, Oklahoma where Jake says he was always the ‘outcast country kid in the city.’
Jake got his love of music from his father, who raised him on John Denver, James Taylor and Dire straits, as well as local singers, his website added.
The country singer also developed a love of grunge during the 1990s after becoming close to his sister’s rocker friends.
Jake’s first introduction to playing music was a result of his father having been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease and was not able to physically provide interaction to his son.
Concerned about not being able to participate with Jake in sports, his father commissioned a couple of his lifelong best friends to teach Jake to play guitar and take him to regional bluegrass festivals.
Sadly, Jake’s dad later succumbed to his illness, with that tragedy inspiring the singer’s music.
