{"id":481474,"date":"2026-10-01T10:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/481474\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T10:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:04:10","slug":"born-97-years-ago-today-in-oklahoma-the-queen-of-the-coast-who-married-not-one-but-two-bakersfield-country-pioneers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/481474\/","title":{"rendered":"Born 97 Years Ago Today in Oklahoma, the \u201cQueen of the Coast\u201d Who Married Not One, but Two Bakersfield Country Pioneers"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day (October 1) in 1927, Bonnie Campbell \u2014 better known as Bonnie Owens \u2014 was born in Blanchard, Oklahoma. She is perhaps best remembered for her marriages to two staples of the Bakersfield country music scene \u2014 first Buck Owens, then Merle Haggard<\/a>. However, Bonnie Owens was an accomplished performer in her own right, reaching the charts with the solo tracks \u201cWhy Don\u2019t Daddy Live Here Anymore\u201d (1963) and \u201cDon\u2019t Take Advantage of Me\u201d (1964).<\/p>\n

On April 24, 2006, Owens died at age 76 after battling Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Today, we\u2019re honoring her legacy on what would have been her 97th birthday.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

Bonnie Owens Only Ever Wanted to Sing<\/p>\n

One of eight children born to sharecropper parents in Depression-era Oklahoma, Bonnie Owens\u2019 earliest musical inspiration<\/a> was her father, Wallace Campbell. He played fiddle, piano, harmonica, and sang, encouraging his children to also nurture their musical talents.<\/p>\n

Like many rural families of their time, the Campbells faithfully tuned into the Grand Ole Opry each weekend.<\/p>\n

A fan of yodelers like Patsy Montana, Bonnie would often perform for her siblings from atop bales of hay in the family barn, wielding a broomstick like a microphone. From a young age, she told anyone who would listen of her plans to become a singer.<\/p>\n

A Brief Marriage to Buck Owens<\/p>\n

Eventually, the Campbells settled in Mesa, Arizona. It was there, at 15, that Bonnie met her first husband<\/a>, Buck Owens. The \u201cAct Naturally\u201d singer had a daily 15-minute show on a local radio station.<\/p>\n

When Buck discovered that Bonnie could sing, he helped her get a job with him on another radio show in 1947. They married a year later and had two sons before moving to Bakersfield, California, in the early 1950s.<\/a> Their union didn\u2019t last long after that, however, and they had separated by 1951.<\/p>\n

A Longer Marriage to Merle Haggard<\/p>\n

Keeping her ex-husband\u2019s name, Bonnie Owens met Fuzzy Owen\u00a0and guitarist Roy Nichols while working as a cocktail waitress in Bakersfield. She sang with Owen\u2019s band, the Sun Valley Playboys, and recorded the duet \u201cA Dear John Letter\u201d with him.<\/p>\n

By 1964, Owen was managing a young Merle Haggard, with whom he suggested Bonnie record a duet<\/a>. Their rendition of \u201cJust Between the Two of Us\u201d topped the U.S. country songs chart in 1965 and won them Best Vocal Group honors from the Academy of Country Music.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

The duo released a duets album of the same name, which climbed to number four on the country albums chart.<\/p>\n

In 1965, Owens also won the ACM\u2019s Female Vocalist of the Year\u00a0Award. She and Haggard married that same year. From there, Owens spent the next decade touring with Haggard\u2019s band the Strangers as a backup vocalist.<\/p>\n

The two divorced in 1978, but Owens continued touring with the Strangers after a brief hiatus.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Without This Woman, Merle Haggard Might Have Never Released Hits Like \u201cMama Tried\u201d and \u201cWorking Man\u201d]<\/a><\/p>\n

Bonnie Owens\u2019 1965 solo debut, Don\u2019t Take Advantage of Me, reached number 15 on the country albums chart. She would release three more throughout her lifetime.<\/p>\n

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (October 1) in 1927, Bonnie Campbell \u2014 better known as Bonnie Owens \u2014 was born…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[172313,151,153,152,188754,44992],"class_list":["post-481474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-1920s","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-bonnie-owens","tag-country-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}