Victoria Hallman started her journey in the entertainment industry at an early age. By the time she was six, Hallman had already secured a recording contract with the esteemed Nashville-based music label Briar International and released her debut single, titled “Send My Daddy Home.” The singer also had the opportunity to work with Buck Owens, the lead singer of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, firstly on the variety show Hee Haw before eventually getting a spot on his touring band.
The duo formed a formidable relationship and produced an album, From Birmingham to Bakersfield, before Owens died in 2006 at 76. The highly publicized album, which fans have been anticipating for decades, was finally released, and Hallmark expressed her happiness about it in an interview with Fox News. “I now understand what an honor it was to have any of this happen to me — how wonderful it is,” she told the news outlet. “How rare it is for someone to have the privilege of creating an album like this one. I can appreciate it now when I couldn’t back then.”
Vicki Hallmark admits that she was romantically involved with Buck Owens
The singer revealed that aside from her professional relationship, she was romantically linked with Owens, which started during her time on Hee Haw. “We didn’t start romantically when I met him, but the attraction was certainly growing from the very beginning. He told me that, from the moment he laid eyes on me, that he knew we would have a relationship – he just didn’t know what kind. … And then we started traveling together. And I was always with him. … I always had my own [hotel] room, of course. But he would come over,” Hallman detailed. “And we would spend time together in the evenings, like watching TV, maybe ordering room service, going out for dinner, or cuddling. It happened the same way it happens for most people.”
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“But our connection was mental first. We were always head-to-head, having deep discussions and comparing notes. We talk about all sorts of things – political, existential. We would talk about his career, of course, and what was going to happen next. We were just so close mentally. But I remember he would often talk about Lady Limelight,” the singer explained further. “He would say he had lots of girlfriends and a couple of wives at least, but the hardest mistress was Lady Limelight.”
Victoria Hallman reveals how their romance ended
While Hallman’s romantic involvement with Owens eventually came to an end, their bond as friends remained unbroken. “He never caused me any pain, heartache, sorrow — anything whatsoever. We were always completely upfront with each other. … We never asked questions about who we were seeing or any of that nitpicky, petty stuff. We were just together,” she shared. “And when we were together, it was great. We never had a disagreement, an argument, or anything bad that happened between us, ever.”
“He was upset when he found out I was getting married. That was a big surprise. My husband asked me to marry him on the second date, and I said yes. So telling Buck that, he grunted like he had taken a punch to the gut. But he just said, ‘You won’t be married long.’… And I wasn’t married long. We divorced in November 1985. But I guess that’s longer than Buck expected,” Hallmark stated. “But I remembered Buck came to my hotel one time and said, ‘I don’t want things to be bad between us.’ And that’s all we needed. Things between us were wonderful, and the romance was great too.”