Jimmy Dean and his wife, Donna, are giving $1 million to Wayland Baptist University in Dean's hometown of Plainview, Texas, according to a news release.

Dean, 79, a businessman and former country music star, now lives in Varina.

According to the release, the donation is the largest of its kind in Wayland's nearly 100-year-history. The gift will fund a $25,000 scholarship in memory of Dean's mother, Ruth Taylor Dean, with the balance going a university capital campaign with the goal of raising $14 million.

The release says Ruth Dean was a single mom who taught her son to play piano and earned a living by cutting hair in her home. She attended a Baptist Church near Plainview, which received a new digital organ donated by the Deans in April in another tribute to Ruth Dean's memory and her musical legacy.

Jimmy Dean's singing career includes the No. 1 Grammy-winning 1961 hit "Big Bad John" and other narrative ballads, including "PT-109" and "IOU," a tribute to his mother.

From 1963 to 1966 he starred in "The Jimmy Dean Show," a country music network television show. He had a featured role in the 1971 James Bond movie, "Diamonds are Forever," as Willard Whyte a Howard Hughes-like character.