Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter on July 27, 1942) is a retired American singer-songwriter who was one of the country’s first female artists to write and produce her own material.
Gentry achieved international acclaim in 1967 with her Southern Gothic novel “Ode to Billie Joe.” The song spent four weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and finished third on the year-end Billboard chart in 1967, earning Gentry Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968.
Gentry had 11 Billboard Hot 100 singles and four Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom. Fancy, her debut album, earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Where Is Bobbie Gentry Now?
Although Bobbie Gentry had a few other hits, none compared to “Ode to Billy Joe,” and she hasn’t been involved in music since the 1970s and hasn’t been seen in public since 1981. In recent years, outlets such as the Washington Post, Medium, and the Guardian attempted to locate Gentry and concluded that she most likely lived near Memphis, Tennessee.
