| Bonnie Brown | |
| Birth Name: | Bonnie Jean Brown |
| Alias: | Bonnie Brown Ring |
| Birth Date: | 31 July 1938 |
| Birth Place: | Sparkman, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Genre: | Country |
| Occupation: | Singer |
| Years Active: | 1955–1967 |
| Label: | RCA Victor |
| Past Member Of: | Jim Ed Brown, Maxine Brown |
Bonnie Jean Brown (July 31, 1938 - July 16, 2016) was an American country music singer and member of the Browns, a sibling trio popular in the 1950s and 1960s.[1]
Bonnie Jean Brown was born July 31, 1938, in Sparkman, Arkansas, to Floyd Iron Brown and Birdie Lee Tuberville Brown.[2] Her parents owned a farm, and her father also worked at a sawmill. While Bonnie was still a child, the family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In 1955, at age 18, she joined her older siblings Maxine and Jim Ed, who were already performing as a duo, to form the musical trio the Browns. Signed by RCA Victor in 1956, the trio scored their biggest hit when their folk-pop single "The Three Bells" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop and country charts. The single held the No. 1 spot on the pop charts for 4 weeks, and on the country charts for ten.
After she married Dr. Gene Ring in 1960, she was known as Bonnie Brown Ring.[2]
In 1965, the Browns joined the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, and disbanded in 1967 after Bonnie had decided to retire from the music business.[3] [2]
Unlike her siblings, Bonnie did not pursue a solo music career after the Browns dissolved, though the trio did reunite twice: in the 1980s, and in 2006 for a TV special Country Pop Legends.[4]
In 2015, the trio was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.[5] Bonnie's brother, Jim Ed Brown, died of cancer June 11, 2015, and Maxine died on 21 January 2019.
On September 28, 2015, Bonnie announced that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma right lung cancer.[6] Brown died of the illness on July 16, 2016, fifteen days before her 78th birthday.[7] She was survived by her sister Maxine Brown; and by daughters Kelly Ring, former co-anchor of the evening news at WTVT-TV in Tampa, Florida,[8] and Robin Ring Shaver of Little Rock. Her husband, Dr. Gene Ring, preceded her in death six months before her passing.