Country Singer. Born Bonnie Maureen Campbell to a sharecropping family, she moved with her parents to Mesa, Arizona when she was 12 and became known in her teens as one of the state's best yodelers. At age 15, she met Buck Owens at a roller-rink and sang with him on local radio shows, appearing with a group called Mac MacAtee and the Skillet Lickers. They married in 1948 when she was 18 and had two sons, Buddy and Michael. In the early 1950s, the couple moved the family to Bakersfield, California where she began singing on a local TV show 'Cousin Herb's Trading Post Gang' in 1953, the same year the couple divorced. The show's band included Fuzzy Owen and together they recorded several duets including, "A Dear John Letter", "Wonderful World" and "Why Don't Daddy Live Here Anymore". Fuzzy suggested that she team up with an up-and-coming singer, Merle Haggard. In 1964, their collaboration on "Just Between the Two of Us" spent six months on the country charts and the following year the Academy of Country Music named her "Female Vocalist Of The Year". She and Haggard married that same year and she began touring with his band, The Strangers, as a backup vocalist. In her career, she recorded 6 solo albums including 'Don't Take Advantage of Me' (1965), 'Somewhere Between' (1968) and 'Mothers Favorite Hymns' (1970) and 2 duet albums with Haggard before divorcing him in 1978. She then married Fred McMillen in the early 1980s and moved to Missouri but continued touring with Haggard and his band on and off until she moved back to Bakersfield after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which was the eventual cause of her death.
Country Singer. Born Bonnie Maureen Campbell to a sharecropping family, she moved with her parents to Mesa, Arizona when she was 12 and became known in her teens as one of the state's best yodelers. At age 15, she met Buck Owens at a roller-rink and sang with him on local radio shows, appearing with a group called Mac MacAtee and the Skillet Lickers. They married in 1948 when she was 18 and had two sons, Buddy and Michael. In the early 1950s, the couple moved the family to Bakersfield, California where she began singing on a local TV show 'Cousin Herb's Trading Post Gang' in 1953, the same year the couple divorced. The show's band included Fuzzy Owen and together they recorded several duets including, "A Dear John Letter", "Wonderful World" and "Why Don't Daddy Live Here Anymore". Fuzzy suggested that she team up with an up-and-coming singer, Merle Haggard. In 1964, their collaboration on "Just Between the Two of Us" spent six months on the country charts and the following year the Academy of Country Music named her "Female Vocalist Of The Year". She and Haggard married that same year and she began touring with his band, The Strangers, as a backup vocalist. In her career, she recorded 6 solo albums including 'Don't Take Advantage of Me' (1965), 'Somewhere Between' (1968) and 'Mothers Favorite Hymns' (1970) and 2 duet albums with Haggard before divorcing him in 1978. She then married Fred McMillen in the early 1980s and moved to Missouri but continued touring with Haggard and his band on and off until she moved back to Bakersfield after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which was the eventual cause of her death.
Bio by: Louis du Mort
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