All About Willie Nelson's Late Sister, Fellow Musician Bobbie Nelson

Bobbie Nelson toured with Willie for years

Willie and Bobbie Nelson made magic as a musical duo for decades.

The siblings made their mark on the country music scene as far back as 1973, and toured together for more than 40 years with their band, The Family. Each night, Willie would introduce Bobbie on stage as “Sister Bobbie,” coining a nickname that’s long been cherished by fans and spoke volumes about their love for each other.

His late older sister made a name for herself as the pianist in Willie’s band, eventually releasing her debut solo album in 2008. Although fans might know Willie and Bobbie for the music they created together as adults, the siblings found a love for music early on in their childhood with their grandparents, William Alfred and Nancy Nelson, buying them their first instruments.

“When we get into the music, something happens,” Bobbie told PEOPLE in 2020. “There’s magic between me and Willie.”

The sentiment was shared by her younger brother who described Bobbie as the “most naturally talented of all the Nelsons,” and told PEOPLE, “She’s my closest friend for a whole lifetime.”

Bobbie passed away on March 10, 2022, at the age of 91, but her legacy continues to live on through her brother and their music.

Here’s everything to know about Willie Nelson’s late sister, Bobbie, and their bond over the years.

She and Willie started playing music at an early age

Willie’s older sister, Bobbie, was born on Jan. 1, 1931, in Abbott, Texas, to parents Ira Doyle Nelson and Myrle Greenhaw Nelson.

Her brother was born two years later on April 29, 1933. Shortly after Willie’s birth, their mother moved to Portland and their dad remarried and also moved away. They left the kids in the care of their paternal grandparents, William and Nancy, who introduced their grandchildren to the world of song.

A music teacher, Nancy taught Bobbie how to play piano on a pump organ when she was 5 years old. Her grandfather then started taking her to gospel conventions in Hillsboro, Texas. After seeing her early talent during a performance at a convention, Alfred bought Bobbie a piano.

The siblings’ grandfather also bought Willie a guitar when he was 6 years old and taught him a few chords. The Nelsons eventually began performing together, with Willie and Bobbie singing with their grandmother around the house and playing at events in the Abbott Methodist Church.

“Willie and I were practically born in that church,” Bobbie told Texas Monthly in 2008. The duo would perform gospel songs together, and when Bobbie turned 14, she began traveling with evangelists in Austin and around Texas.

Although Bobbie and Willie’s childhood was full of music, it was also loaded with challenges. Their grandfather died of pneumonia when Bobbie was 8 years old, and they struggled to make a living out of their grandmother’s earnings as a music teacher. So, the siblings were put to work picking cotton.

While the work was tough, music came as a salve for the siblings.

“I used to work in the cotton fields a lot when I was young,” Willie remembered of that time in a 2012 interview with The Guardian. “There were a lot of African Americans working out there. A lot of Mexicans — the blacks and the whites and the Mexicans, all out there singing, and it was like an opera in the cotton fields and I can still hear it in the music that I write and play today.”

She was a pianist

Bobbie’s career as a pianist began early in her life.

When she was 16 years old, she married fellow artist Arlyn “Bud” Fletcher and joined his band called The Texans. Following their divorce, however, the group disbanded in 1955 and Bobbie began playing in local restaurants and venues across Texas and Tennessee.

Things took a turn, though, in Bobbie’s career a few years later, in 1973, when she received a call from her brother asking her to join him in New York. At the time, Willie was recording a gospel album and insisted that Bobbie play the piano for it.

She boarded an airplane for the first time in her life, met up with Willie in New York, and the pair recorded the critically acclaimed album The Troublemaker. Bobbie joined Willie’s troupe full-time that year, and began touring with his band The Family until her death in 2022.

Although Bobbie was mainly known for her work with her brother, she released her debut solo album, Audiobiography, in 2008 and was inducted into the Texas Country Musical Hall of Fame nine years later. The state of Texas also declared February 23 as Bobbie Nelson Day.

Bobbie played her last show with Willie on Oct. 9, 2021, in New Braunfels, Texas. In 2020, the siblings released an autobiography together titled Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band.

She had three children

Bobbie and Aryln had three sons together, Randy Arlyn, Michael Wayne and Freddy Nelson.

After their divorce in 1954, Bobbie and Aryln’s kids were taken into the custody of their paternal grandparents, who moved them to their home in Vaughn. Bobbie proceeded to move to Fort Worth so she could be near her kids, where she was an hour’s drive away and managed to visit them once a week.

In her and Willie’s 2020 memoir, Bobbie wrote that hearing Willie on the radio — who was working at a local country station KCNC at the time — was one of the few sources of comfort that she had when she was struggling to win back the custody of her kids. Eventually, Bobbie prevailed and lived with her boys in Fort Worth, and they later moved to Austin together as a family.

In 1986, Bobbie learned that her middle son Michael was diagnosed with HIV. She took care of him for three years before he died from AIDS in the summer of 1989. Another tragedy then occurred when Bobbie’s oldest son, Randy, died in a single-vehicle accident six months later on New Year’s Day 1990, Bobbie’s 59th birthday.

The Nelsons supported each other through grief

Willie has also had his fair share of grief. His oldest son Billy died in an accident in 1991, and the siblings have spoken about how they leaned on each other during this time of grief and tragedy.

“There’s a lot of things that happened during our lives, I would’ve never thought of explaining to someone,” Bobbie told PEOPLE in 2020. “And now that it’s happened, there’s not anything for me to say except tell someone that you can survive.”

The siblings discussed how their shared pain brought them closer together in their joint 2020 memoir, with Bobbie writing, “It wasn’t that we had long talks about our grief. That’s not Willie’s way. We didn’t have to talk about it. We knew.”

“I knew what Willie was going through. He knew how I was suffering. And the mere fact of being together made the burden a little lighter,” she added.

She passed away at age 91

Bobbie passed away in Austin in March 2022. She was 91.

At the time, the Nelson family released a statement on social media that read, “Bobbie Nelson passed away this morning, peacefully and surrounded by family.”

“Her elegance, grace, beauty and talent made this world a better place. She was the first member of Willie’s band, as his pianist and singer,” it continued. “Our hearts are broken and she will be deeply missed. But we are so lucky to have had her in our lives.”

“Please keep her family in your thoughts and give them the privacy they need at this time,” the statement concluded.

Her son Freddy, inherited the grand piano Bobbie used to play on tour with Willie for approximately 47 years. He decided to give it to the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin to celebrate his mom’s musical legacy.

“Doing 200 dates a year, my mom spent more time with that piano than with anything or anyone else,” Freddy said. “Well, anyone but Willie.”

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