Biography
Barbara Anne Marie Wellhöner Jakobs was born in Bielefeld, Germany. On July 21, 1968, Barbara (then 18 years old) met the 32-year-old Orbison when he asked friends to introduce him to her at a nightclub in Leeds, England, during Orbison's tour of Great Britain. They married on March 24, 1969, in Hendersonville, Tennessee. They divided their time between Nashville and Malibu, California, raising their two sons, Roy Kelton Orbison, Jr. (born 1970) and Alexander Lee Orbison (born 1974).
During the 1980s, she managed her husband's career and was the executive producer of his 1987 album, In Dreams: The Greatest Hits plus his highly acclaimed January 1988 televised music special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. Following her husband's death on December 6th 1988, she took charge of his business affairs and dedicated herself to promoting his music to ensuing generations. She worked with friend and fellow artist Jeff Lynne to put together the posthumous release of the King of Hearts album in 1992 (an album which was re-issued in 2007 by Sony BMG after they took charge of Virgin's catalog in 2005) as well as other record projects. She co-produced Only the Lonely: The Roy Orbison Story, a European stage musical.
In late 1993, the family home in Malibu was destroyed by brush fires. Although she maintained a residence on the West Coast, she returned to Nashville where she purchased a home as well as a commercial property to house her music publishing business. Her company, "Still Working Music", employs songwriters such as Tommy Lee James and Billy Burnette.
Orbison was also involved with charitable causes in aid of the homeless. For Showtime, in 1991, she produced a Roy Orbison tribute at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles that raised in excess of $1 million for the city's homeless. She personally funded "Orbison House", a 21-unit residence for the mentally impaired homeless of Los Angeles.
She produced Damien Leith's album, Roy: A Tribute To Roy Orbison, which was released by Sony BMG in Australia on April 15, 2011 to coincide with what would have been Roy Orbison's 75th birthday.
Read more about this topic: Barbara Orbison
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