Buck Owens Borrowed His Name from Family Donkey

By BARTEE HAILE 

“Hee Haw,” a country music variety show co-hosted by Buck Owens and Roy Clark, hit the airwaves on Jun. 15, 1969 as a summer replacement for the “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. was born in 1929 on a farm near Sherman a short distance from the Red River. As a small boy, he declared that he preferred the name of the family donkey to his own. His parents went along, and after that everyone called him“ Buck.”

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