Biography
Bonnie Owens earned recognition beyond her independent work through partnerships with former spouses Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. She entered the world as Bonnie Campbell on October 1, 1929, in Oklahoma City, one of eight children raised by sharecropping parents. During the mid-1940s she first encountered Buck while he hosted a local daily fifteen-minute radio program. Once he learned of her vocal ability, Buck arranged a joint radio slot for her in 1947. They wed the following January, though the marriage proved brief. By 1951, after the birth of two sons, the couple ended their relationship. Lacking funds for a divorce, they remained legally wed yet lived apart for years afterward. Bonnie relocated with the boys to Bakersfield and took a job as a cocktail waitress. There she met Fuzzy Owen along with guitarist Roy Nichols, both of whom later played key roles in Haggard’s development.
By the late 1950s she was cutting sides for the Mar-Vel label alongside Fuzzy and his group the Sun Valley Playboys. The pair, occasional romantic partners, issued a duet album on Tally Records that Capitol later reissued under the title “Just Between the Two of Us.” In 1961 Bonnie first heard Haggard perform at a Lefty Frizzell concert; at that moment Haggard had been free from San Quentin only a few months after serving time for breaking and entering. By 1964, when Fuzzy had become Haggard’s manager, he proposed that Bonnie and Haggard remake “Just Between the Two of Us.” The resulting single reached the summit of the country chart, only to be displaced by Haggard’s breakthrough release “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers.”
Haggard joined the Capitol roster in 1965, married Bonnie, and placed the Strangers—including Bonnie—under a booking agency partly owned by Buck. The union with Haggard continued until 1978, although the pair had already parted ways by 1975. Bonnie eventually returned to the road with the Strangers in the late 1970s and entered a final marriage to Fred McMillenher. She maintained a regular touring schedule with Haggard and the Strangers thereafter. Although she issued half a dozen albums and numerous singles for Capitol during the mid- to late 1960s, Bonnie remained content providing backup vocals within the Strangers.
By the late 1950s she was cutting sides for the Mar-Vel label alongside Fuzzy and his group the Sun Valley Playboys. The pair, occasional romantic partners, issued a duet album on Tally Records that Capitol later reissued under the title “Just Between the Two of Us.” In 1961 Bonnie first heard Haggard perform at a Lefty Frizzell concert; at that moment Haggard had been free from San Quentin only a few months after serving time for breaking and entering. By 1964, when Fuzzy had become Haggard’s manager, he proposed that Bonnie and Haggard remake “Just Between the Two of Us.” The resulting single reached the summit of the country chart, only to be displaced by Haggard’s breakthrough release “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers.”
Haggard joined the Capitol roster in 1965, married Bonnie, and placed the Strangers—including Bonnie—under a booking agency partly owned by Buck. The union with Haggard continued until 1978, although the pair had already parted ways by 1975. Bonnie eventually returned to the road with the Strangers in the late 1970s and entered a final marriage to Fred McMillenher. She maintained a regular touring schedule with Haggard and the Strangers thereafter. Although she issued half a dozen albums and numerous singles for Capitol during the mid- to late 1960s, Bonnie remained content providing backup vocals within the Strangers.
Albums
