Singer Owens buried in California

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Some of country music's biggest names gathered in this central California farming hub Sunday to pay tribute to Buck Owens, the flashy cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with his honky-tonk twang.

Dwight Yoakam, Trace Adkins and Garth Brooks were among the more than 2,000 friends, family members and fans who crowded Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, where the country legend died of a heart ailment at his home March 25 at age 76.

The memorial service opened with a photo montage set to some of Owens' greatest hits, and included performances by Yoakam and Adkins, and a surprise appearance by Brad Paisley.

"Buck gave birth to a movement," Paisley said. "At the time when he came through, his music was so different. He was a maverick in the true sense of the word."

Owens' three sons, John, Buddy and Michael, remembered their father as a stern but loving figure, whose advice they still carry with them.

"My father told me opening the door to success is the easy part, but staying there with pride is the challenge," Buddy Owens said.

Inside the church, flowers were arranged in the shape of Owens' trademark red, white and blue guitars.

A huge U.S. flag hoisted on a fire rescue ladder flapped above the church. Some people arrived in black suits and dresses, while others opted for traditional country gear -- cowboy hats, boots, jeans and big belt buckles.

"We liked his music because it had a real western flavor," said Ramiro Canales, 62, who lives near Bakersfield. He and his wife have been fans of Owens since the 1950s.

About 6,000 friends and fans showed up Saturday at the Crystal Palace, Owens' restaurant and theater, to view his open casket, which was set among flowers on the dance floor.

Owens influenced the sound of country music from outside of Nashville with such hits as "Act Naturally" and more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. He also brought the genre to TV on the long-running show "Hee Haw."

His honky-tonk twang was known as the "Bakersfield sound," named after what was a Highway 99 truck-stop town in 1951, when he moved there to find work in its thriving juke joints.

He was a tireless performer, playing regular sets at the Crystal Palace. He was known for taking the stage with his band, the Buckaroos, wearing rhinestone suits with a red, white and blue guitar in hand.

He never stopped working, and had returned from a Friday night performance shortly before he died.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996.

Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. was born in 1929 outside Sherman, Texas, the son of a sharecropper. His family moved around during the Great Depression, and Owens was performing in taverns by the time he was 16.

A private burial was to take place later Sunday.

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On the Net:

http://www.buckowens.com