Bonnie Owens first wife of singer Buck Owens
Janice Busgal Brooks
BAKERSFIELD - Just one month after the death of country legend Buck
Owens,
there is word that Bonnie Owens has passed away.
The death of Bonnie Owens was reported Monday afternoon by Buck
Owen's
Bakersfield Radio Station KUZZ.
She was the wife to both of Bakersfield country legends Buck Owens and
Merle
Haggard.
Bonnie was born in Oklahoma City and met Buck in a roller rink in Mesa,
Ariz. and they were married in 1948.
She was the mother of Buck's two sons, Mike and Buddy Owens. However,
the
marriage to Buck did not last and the two divorced.
Like Buck, she was a country singer and after the divorce from Buck,
she
became closer to Merle Haggard.
The two married in 1965 but that marriage dissolved in 1978.
Family spokesman Jim Shaw said she passed away shortly before 5 p.m.
from
complications of Alzheimer's.
She was 76 years old.
Funeral plans are pending.
Bill Schenley
> legends Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
After Haggard she married Fred McMillan ... but according to a family
spokesperson ... her ashes are to placed next to Buck Owens.
The only song she did that I liked, that I can think of ... was she
and Haggard doing "Today I Started Loving You Again" ... and even that
version was light years behind Sammi Smith's ...
tr...@iwvisp.com
'90's. She continued to occasionally tour with Haggard and was
credited for keeping him mostly sober before many of his concerts. She
was a lovely lady and a lot of fun to be around.
Ray Arthur
bway...@gmail.com
of the Coast," and whenever she performs it in concert she introduces
it with a little speech about Bonnie and her career.
It's on Laura's album "Not the Tremblin' Kind." The lyrics:
She was the Queen of the Coast back in nineteen sixty five,
Prettier 'n most, she could keep a room alive,
With the catch in her voice and the beehive on her head
Do you remember anything she ever said?
Well, some stars fade faster than the rest,
And the promise wore off though she did her best
She finally looked around for somethin' else to d.
What she found was a man who needed what she knew
Have you forgotten? Have you forgiven?
Tell me are you livin' just a little in your past every day?
Time sure has changed you; it's walked right on by you.
Does it satisfy you to have so little to say?
For the next ten years she rode around on the bus
She did washin' and ironin' and pickin' up
She had a place to stand at the back of the stage
She was there every night, lookin' her age
She lent her voice, but she gave her heart
And, I guess, that must've been the hardest part
She figured out exactly what was goin' on,
All the love she had given for a song
Then things unravelled like they usually do
She got her old heart busted up by husband, number two
Have you forgotten? Have you forgiven?
Tell me are you livin' just a little in your past every day?
Time sure has changed you; it's walked right on by you
Does it satisfy you to have so little to say?
I'm not quite sure when she got back on the bus
But she's still washin' and ironin' and pickin' up
If you look all the way to the back of the stage,
She's standin' at her mic, lookin' her age
In a roadstop in Reno at supper time,
The waitress comes over with a look in her eye
Says: "I saw you in Modesto almost thirty years ago,
"An' I can still remember every song in your show."
"Please Help Me, I'm Falling." "Don't Come Home A-Drinking."
Well, there's a pair of swingin' doors for every cowboy sweetheart
tonight
Time sure has changed you; it's walked right on by you
Does it satisfy you to have so little to say?
Music and lyrics by Laura Cantrell - Thrift Shop Songs/BMI
http://www.lauracantrell.com/discography.asp
-Tim