Jimmy Dean, a country singer and television-show host whose good looks, folksy integrity and aw-shucks Texas charm served him especially well when he went into the sausage business and became his own pitchman, died Sunday at his home in Varina, Va., outside Richmond. He was 81.

His wife, Donna Meade Dean, told The Associated Press that he died suddenly while watching television.

Mr. Dean followed two separate paths to celebrity. For the generations that came to television consciousness after 1970, Mr. Dean, who grew up on a farm in West Texas, was the face and the voice of an eponymous brand of breakfast sausage, a product of the Jimmy Dean Meat Company, which he started in 1969.

In dozens of commercials that were broadcast for more than 30 years  Sara Lee bought the company in 1984 but kept Mr. Dean as a spokesman until 2003  he represented the product as a wholesome family food, nutritious and delicious, as homey as a needlepoint epigram.