A string of marriages lying broken in the dust and a chicken chain gone the way of the
dodo – Kenny Rogers gambled a lot in life, but he wasn't always dealt a winning hand.
Long the subject of rumors and suggestive comments, music legends Kenny Rogers and Dolly
Parton have always maintained they were simply friends. According to The Washington Post, the
pair had initially bonded over both their shared religious beliefs, and their difficult childhoods.
Rogers, says the Houston Press, grew up in Houston's Fourth Ward. The San Felipe
Courts housing projects that he grew up in had been built for white families,
and they came at the cost of displacing families of color.
The fourth of ultimately eight children, Rogers's father was a carpenter and amateur
musician while his mother was employed as an office cleaner and hospital worker.
Over the years, Kenny and his siblings have each spoken about the family's financial struggles.
"We struggled, you know, but, but we had faith that we would make it through."
Financial difficulties aside, the Rogers family has spoken about the sense of community they
shared with their neighbors. When Rogers made it big, he made it a point to repay
kindnesses he remembered, even years after they had occurred. It was the 1970s when he
got word that a former neighbor was short the $600 she needed to get her car running again,
so he sent her $20,000, instructions to get a new one, and a note that read -
"Thank you for helping me pay my rent years ago."
Kenny Rogers released his memoir, "Luck or Something Like It," in 2012,
writing candidly about some pretty difficult things, including his father's struggles with
alcohol. He explained to Reuters that seeing his father's drinking habit and the consequences that
came with it was what convinced him to stay sober for his entire life. He also had concerns that
he had a genetic predisposition to addiction, and risked following his father down the same
path. But even that logically sound decision came some pretty heavy regrets, with Rogers writing -
"I never really got to know why my dad drank. He was an alcoholic,
but during that time, post-World War II, a lot of people were unemployed
and ended up drinking. He couldn't really support his family, and I think it just
broke him down. It breaks my heart that I didn't know that before he passed away."
Proving once again that he was a lemons-to-lemonade kind of person,
Rogers also wrote that his own brief experiences with drugs
are what made him both take up photography to have something else to fill the time
in between the music, and defend those who find themselves struggling with addictions.
Kenny Rogers frequently partnered with singer Dottie West, and together they released several
albums and a number of major hits, including "Every Time Two Fools Collide” and "Anyone
Who Isn't Me Tonight." Country Music Family adds that they weren't just partners in music,
they were extremely good friends outside of the studio too. Ultimately,
Rogers would be one of the last people to see her before she was killed in a car accident.
West went through a divorce and bankruptcy in the early 1990s, and was trying to get her career
and her life back on track. According to The Boot, she had help from Rogers,
who gave her a car that she was driving while on her way to The Grand Ole Opry on August 31, 1991.
While en route, the car quit on her, and she called her neighbor to pick her up
so that she could get to the venue. Her neighbor came and got her,
but in his rush to get her there on time, ended up crashing into a freeway divider. West suffered
massive internal injuries, and after undergoing several operations, died just a few days later.
Rogers told Rolling Stone in 2014 that one of his life goals was seeing that Dottie got
the recognition she deserved by getting her inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Four years later, she received her well deserved honor, and in celebration
he posted a congratulations directed towards her on his Facebook page.
When Kenny Rogers released his 2012 autobiography "Luck or Something Like It," he wrote about
his five marriages. At the time, he had been married to his fifth wife, Wanda,
for 15 years, to which he credited having learned a lot of lessons from the previous marriages.
He went on to add that he actually blamed himself for them falling apart, telling Reuters -
"When I became driven and selfish, I was so intent to follow my life that
it cost me. [...] every woman I married, I really loved when I married her. And I don't
blame them for the marriage falling apart. I blame myself and my chosen field of music."
"I think it's the man's responsibility to protect that relationship,
and I didn't do that. You know, I - like I said I was too driven I guess or whatever."
Rogers got married for the first time to then-girlfriend Janice Gordon when he was 19 and
she was pregnant. Obviously the marriage didn't last, and just a few months after his divorce,
he kicked off what would be a 3-year marriage to Jean Rogers.
That relationship ended as well, and he was then married to Margo Anderson from 1964 to 1976,
Marianne Gordon from 1977 to 1993, and finally married Wanda Miller in 1997.
It was Marianne Gordon who explained the sad end of their marriage to Closer Weekly,
saying that although he had attempted to keep his focus onto her and the relationship,
he struggled with the idea that his career was failing, saying -
"He felt this craving, this longing. He said he felt like he was having a mid-life crisis."
According to the Irish Independent,
Gordon ended up receiving a settlement of around $60 million in their divorce.
When Kenny Rogers got married for what would be the final time, it's safe to say the match
raised some eyebrows. As he told Fox News, Wanda Miller was 28 years younger than him,
and her parents, who were actually two years younger than he was,
had been vocal about their disapproval. However, they continued seeing each other,
and two decades into the relationship, he was still referring to her as his true soul mate.
He also talked about how grateful he was to say that she was the mother of two of his children.
Rogers announced his retirement in 2015, and said the reason he was finally stepping away
from music was a combination of things, including difficulties with mobility,
and wanting to spend more time with his kids. He likely needed as much energy as possible
for the latter - when he retired, he was the 77-year-old father of 11-year-old twin boys.
When Rogers spoke to the Irish Independent in 2006,
he said that being a father to his twin boys was what he was best at, though he
acknowledged that he had made some mistakes along the way with some of his other children.
Rogers's first child, a daughter named Carole Lynn, was born in 1958. According to Fox News,
Rogers married her mother when they discovered she was pregnant, and after the divorce and in spite
of their efforts at reconciliation, the father and daughter remained estranged. Rogers explained that
he stepped out of the way so as to not disrupt her relationship with her stepfather. Outsider
notes that he was estranged from his first-born son, Kenny Rogers Jr. as well. However, after
his son Christopher was born and despite divorcing his mother, Marianne Gordon, Rogers promised his
second-born son that he would always be his father — even if they didn't get to see each other much.
When explaining his retirement during a conference call with reporters,
he explained his regret about his relationship with his children, saying -
"I have two older boys, and I didn't get to spend this time with [them], and I resent
it. My [younger] boys are playing football this year, and we went to watch a game and they were so
excited about us being there [...] as a parent, you want to be part of as much as you can."
While Kenny Rogers will undoubtedly continue to be remembered for his music, there's a business
venture he set out on in 1991 that sadly didn't go exactly as planned. That's the establishment
of Kenny Rogers Roasters, a restaurant chain that Vice says was meant to be an alternative
to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The idea was that instead of having to reach for the fried chicken,
the chain was going to offer fresh rotisserie chickens and corn muffins. Unfortunately,
in spite of the fact that rotisserie chickens hit peak popularity at the time,
and that they got a mention on "Seinfeld", the chain was plagued with problems.
"Rogers can't sell chicken around here - we got chicken places on every block!"
"He IS the gambler."
Just a year after they opened, a $10 million lawsuit was filed by a company claiming that the
chain had copied their concept. Rogers' restaurant ended up buying out the little guy, but by the
time that happened, they had more competition that ended up being too much to handle.
Kenny Rogers Roasters ended up being around for just a few years before bankruptcy hit.
In 1998, the company was sold, and Rogers both got out and made it
a point to distance himself from the restaurants that still bear his name.
Surprisingly, there are a lot of them still around today, with around 200 in southeast Asia.
By the time Kenny Rogers announced his retirement in 2017,
he had been performing for 60 years. Sadly, he didn't get much time to enjoy that retirement:
only a few years after calling it quits, Rogers died on March 20, 2020. No specific cause was
given, with representatives stating that he passed away from natural causes while surrounded by his
family. They did, however, note that he had been struggling with mobility issues in recent years.
Tributes came pouring in, and perhaps none were as
moving as the one from Rogers's longtime friend, Dolly Parton.
"I loved Kenny with all my heart,
my heart's broken, and a big ol' chunk of it has gone with him today."
Because Rogers's death came during the COVID-19 pandemic,
the funeral was limited to a small and private service,
with promises of a public celebration to follow as soon as it was safe to do so.
What makes Rogers's passing even more heartbreaking is the fact that at the time of
his death, he had a lawsuit in progress against a former friend and employee named Kelly Junkerman.
News of the lawsuit was broken by TMZ, and it involved video footage of the farewell tour.
Rogers reportedly had given Junkerman permission to film during the tour,
but the footage wasn't supposed to be released. However, the lawsuit claims,
Junkermann did release it, in the form of a DVD called "Kenny Rogers — The Gambler's Last Deal."
The lawsuit was looking for a legal ruling in favor of preventing the footage from being shared,
and $290,000 in damages. Experts from O'Loughlin Law Firm, LLC suggest that
part of the reason for the swift action blocking the release of the DVD is so that the estate can
release an official version, one that they don't want to be confused with Junkermann's.
Presale links to the video are still circulating, but sales continue to be shut down.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues,
help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).