Bonnie Owens born 1 October 1929

Bonnie Owens (October 1, 1929 – April 24, 2006), born Bonnie Campbell, was an American country music singer who was married to Buck Owens and later 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.

Owens recorded on numerous labels during the 1950s and early 1960s, including Merle Haggard’s and Fuzzy Owen's own Tally label, all of which were singles.  She had hits on the country charts in the early 1960s with the songs "Why Don't Daddy Live Here Anymore?" and "Don't Take Advantage Of Me".

                              

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 in 1965 Haggard signed with Capitol

Records and signed the Strangers (including Bonnie) with a booking agency owned in part by Buck. Haggard and Owens recorded the song called "Just Between the Two of Us", a duet hit and probably Owens' best known hit. It was also the title song to their 1966 duet album on Capitol Records #ST-2453.

Owens was named “Female Vocalist Of The Year” in 1965 by the Academy Of Country Music and she and Haggard were married that same year. From that point on Bonnie dedicated her time to Haggard’s children and his career, touring with Merle’s band The Strangers as a backup vocalist. 

During the early stages of Bonnie and Merle’s careers together, Bonnie was the headliner, and Merle, the up and coming (and underlining) new star.

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.

When Bonnie toured Australia in 1996 with Merle Haggard she had

no trouble with her lyrics. But at a later gig with Bonnie's first husband Buck at his famed Crystal Palace nightclub her memory failed her. Alzheimer's disease had taken its toll. "It was then that Buck realized that what was happening to her was for real," long time Buckaroos keyboard player Jim Shaw said of her illness. "She got up there and didn't know the words to her own songs. She had the same radiant smile, the same sparkling eyes - she looked just like the Bonnie we'd all known but Buck was devastated."

In 2003, she returned to Bakersfield. According to Shaw, she belted out country songs even when living in a nursing home.

Owens died in a Bakersfield hospice April 24, 2006 .She was 76 years old. At the time of her death, she was separated from her third husband, Fred McMillen. She had moved to Missouri with him in the 1980s but returned to Bakersfield alone during 2003.

 (Info edited mainly from All Music & Wikipedia)