San Francisco's bluegrass scene has lost one of its most familiar voices. Jeanie Poling, who spent more than four decades performing traditional bluegrass and country music alongside her husband, Chuck Poling, died Aug. 26 at UCSF Health Stanyan Hospital. She was 67.
Chuck Poling said his wife died of pneumonia after a three-and-a-half-year battle with two rare forms of cancer, first diagnosed in January 2023. "She fought the good fight but knew when to throw in the towel," he wrote in a tribute. He also called her "a remarkable singer, with a powerful voice" who "could really get a room to shut up and listen."
Four Decades on Stage Together
Jeanie, a Long Island transplant who moved to San Francisco at 19, met Chuck at the San Francisco Folk Music Club when the two ended up singing "I'm An Old Cowhand From the Rio Grande" together. They married about a year later and went on to perform as "Jeanie and Chuck" for roughly 42 years, hosting the Bluegrass Country Jam at the Plough and Stars for two decades before COVID ended the run.
Even after her diagnosis, Poling kept playing farmers markets and street fairs in her signature cowboy hat and boots. She was also a 20-year fixture at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, never missing a day at the Rooster Stage. This year's festival, Oct. 2-4, will be the first without her.
Bluegrass has always carried gospel music in its bones - hymns and cowboy ballads sharing the same set list - and friends in the scene say that heritage is shaping how they're mourning her: with old songs, not just sorrow.
She is survived by Chuck and their children.
