* En anglais uniquement
Apart from her solo career, singer
Bonnie Owens is well known for the work she did with her former husbands,
Buck Owens and
Merle Haggard. Born Bonnie Campbell on October 1, 1929, in Oklahoma City to a pair of sharecroppers and one of eight children, she first met
Buck in the mid-'40s when he had a local daily 15-minute radio show. Once
Buck discovered that
Bonnie could sing, he helped her get a job with him on another radio show in 1947. The following January,
Buck and
Bonnie married, but the union was short-lived. By 1951, after giving birth to two sons, the marriage was over. Since neither could afford a divorce, they stayed legally married, but separated, for several years.
Bonnie and the two boys left for Bakersfield, where she worked as a cocktail waitress. It was during this period that
Bonnie met
Fuzzy Owen and guitarist
Roy Nichols, who would be instrumental in the career of
Haggard.
By the late '50s
Bonnie was recording on the Mar-Vel label with
Fuzzy and his band, the Sun Valley Playboys. She cut a well-received duet album with
Fuzzy, her sometime boyfriend, on Tally Records, which would later be re-released on Capitol Records as "Just Between the Two of Us." In 1961,
Bonnie saw
Haggard singing for the first time at a
Lefty Frizzell concert. At the time,
Haggard was just a few months out of San Quentin prison for breaking and entering. By 1964
Fuzzy was managing
Haggard and suggested that
Bonnie and
Haggard re-record "Just Between the Two of Us." Taking
Fuzzy's advice paid off; the song hit the top of the country charts but not for long. It was replaced by "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers,"
Haggard's breakthrough single.
In 1965
Haggard signed with Capitol Records, married
Bonnie, and signed the Strangers (including
Bonnie) with a booking agency owned in part by
Buck.
Bonnie's marriage to
Haggard lasted until 1978, but the two had already separated in 1975. Eventually
Bonnie resumed touring with the Strangers in the late '70s and remarried for the final time to Fred McMillenher. She continued to tour regularly with
Haggard and the Strangers. While
Bonnie released half a dozen albums and numerous singles on Capitol Records in the mid- to late '60s, she remained satisfied singing backup as a member of the Strangers. ~ Al Campbell