Randy Owen’s Mother, Martha Owen, Has Died
Alabama lead singer Randy Owen is grieving the loss of his mother today. Martha Alice Teague Owen died on Thursday morning (June 2) after a short illness.
A note from Alabama's team reveals that the 90-year-old Owen matriarch was surrounded by family in Fort Payne, Ala., when she died. She leaves behind Randy and his two sisters, Reba Patterson and Rachel Carroll, as well as extended family.
As a result of the death in the family, two Alabama shows slated for this weekend are being rescheduled for December. The band's June 3 show in Roanoke, Va., will now take place on Dec. 9 and the June 4 show in Fayetteville, N.C., will take place on Dec. 11.
Funeral services for Martha Owen will happen on June 6 at the Rainsville Community Church in Rainsville, Ala.
Randy Owen credits his mother and father for introducing him to singing on a live stage. As kids, he and his sisters formed the Singing Owen Family Gospel group and performed around Alabama and the south. The group Alabama would be formed in 1969 by Owen and his cousins, Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook. They'd first crack the Billboard Country Top 40 a decade later with "I Wanna Come Over."
Martha Owen was preceded in death by her husband, Gladstone Yeuell Owen, who died in 1980 at age 59 of unknown causes. With the release of the band's American Christmas album, Owen spoke about his father and how it haunts him that he never got to see his son's country music success.
"He's the person who taught me how to play the guitar," Owen wrote. "He could thumb pick like Merle Travis and sing high tenor, harmonizing the way Don Rich would with Buck Owens. If he had lived long enough that I could've taken him to Grand Ole Opry, it would have been amazing."