re: Musicians who went away, and stayed away

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As Gentry’s wealth accumulated, one wonders whether it negatively impacted her desire to be a public figure. Haskell felt that “Bobbie was a little more exclusive and a little more reclusive. Up ’til ‘Billie Joe’, she was trying to make it. I don’t suppose she really changed. She could simply afford to become more reclusive.

“In the early days, she said to me, ‘Jimmie, I’m gonna be rich. My mother’s been married twice?—?once to a regular guy and then to a rich man. I like being rich. If I don’t make it in music, I’m gonna start a company and make really inexpensive dresses out of burlap bags.’ She always had great business savvy.”

After an April 29, 1982 appearance at the 17th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, the “Chickasaw County Child” quietly retreated into private life in Savannah with only child Tyler, fathered by third and so far final husband Jim Stafford of “Spiders and Snakes” fame.

She grants no interviews, including a request from this writer, has rarely been seen in public, and has eliminated communication with virtually all of her music industry friends?—?and non-immediate family. Quite a feat considering the instant world of mass media in which we live.

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From all appearances, Gentry is healthy and happy. She quietly resides in a grand English estate 30 miles east of Memphis surrounded by lush trees and rolling hills.

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In perhaps her most recent image taken in 2000, Bobbie Gentry is seen with half-brother Robert Streeter

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