"Aunt Bobbie's" Music Career
At age sixteen she met Bud Fletcher and married. Although Fletcher did not have musical abilities, he formed his own band
Bud Fletcher and the Texans limitating his participation to direct it. Bobbie Nelson joined on the piano, while her brother sang and played guitar.
The band was dissembled in 1955 when she was forced to divorce by Bud Fletcher who was sick. She lost the custody of her sons Randy, Michael, and Freddy for playing in honky-tonks and it was given to her husband's parents. Fletcher died on a car accident in 1961, Bobbie Nelson suffered a breakdown and was admitted into a hospital in Fort Worth. To retrieve the custody, she married again and started working on a television repair shop in town. The owner of the store rented a piano for her to be a comfort to her problems. She eventually started working for the Hammond organ company doing demonstrations and sales of the products. She retrieved the custody of her sons and moved to Austin, Texas. In 1965, after her third marriage failed, she went to Nashville, where her brother was working in his music career. She played in different restaurants and other venues until her brother called her from New York in 1973, where he was on a recording session with Atlantic Records. She joined him on the piano for the recordings, where the albums
The Troublemaker,
Shotgun Willie and
Phases and Stages were produced. She joined Willie Nelson's newly formed band,
The Family full time and started touring along with him. In 2008 she released her solo debut album,
Audiobiography
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Aunt Bobbie with Leon Russell
at The 4th of July Picnic in Spicewood 1979 |
Jack Fletcher and Bobbie
Jack Fletcher and Bobbie