On March 10, 2022, Willie Nelson and his family announced the death of his 91-year-old sister, Bobbie Nelson. She was a vocalist, pianist, and the first member of Willie Nelson’s band, where she stayed for more than 50 years.
Even after suffering a mother’s deepest heartache twice in the same six months, Nelson described his sister as a nice person who saw the good in others. Despite that heartache, she shined “as if her life [had] been a breeze,” he said.
Willie Nelson: ‘Our hearts are broken over the death of Bobbie Nelson
On Willie Nelson’s Instagram, the Nelson family shared a statement on their loss. “Bobbie Nelson passed away this morning, peacefully and surrounded by family,” the caption starts before sharing she “made this world a better place.”
“Our hearts are broken and she will be deeply missed,” it also reads. “But we are so lucky to have had her in our lives.”
The family’s statement concludes with a request to “please keep her family in your thoughts and give them the privacy they need at this time.”
Willie Nelson once said Bobbie Nelson was his ‘rock’ and she said she felt run down without him
Nelson wrote about his relationship with his older sister, whom he often refers to as his “little” sister, in his book Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.
She was born in Texas on Jan. 1, 1931, and he followed on Apr. 29, 1933. Both Bobbie and Willie Nelson were exposed to music by their grandparents as children, and the two developed a lifetime love for it together. She wrote a note for his book, sharing, “Our lives are all about music and love.”
“Sister Bobbie is my rock,” Nelson wrote about her. “She has been with me since, well, since I first started breathing on this planet.”
He called her “beautiful” and “timeless” before declaring that she was the best piano player for him since she could roll with his punches. “It doesn’t matter where I run off to in music,” he shared, “she is always there when I get back.”
He admired her most of all for seeing the good in others and for being a nice person herself. “She thinks I hung the moon,” he added, “did I mention that?”
Bobbie Nelson remarked in a 2017 interview with the Austin-American Statesman that she would feel depleted if she were separated from her country star brother for more than a few weeks. “It’s just the most wonderful therapy in the world to play with Willie,” she shared.
As per Nbcnews, she also spoke more of the strong bond they established between them as children.
“It was just so amazing to us that I could play one part and Willie could play another and together we had a song,” she explained. “We’d look at each other and our eyes would light up.”
Bobbie Nelson had two sons who died before her
Bobbie Nelson told the Austin-American Statesman that she had outlived two of her three children. Within six months of each other, one son died of leukemia and the other died in a car accident. She claimed their deaths were heartbreaking losses that taught her not to take the remainder of her life for granted.
“Bobbie has had so much heartache in her life, yet somehow she just lives through it and shines as if her life has been a breeze,” Willie Nelson wrote in Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. “It hasn’t, and that is real courage.”
