Bonnie Garner

Rothbaum and Garner, CBS Records, Dick Cavett Show

Bonnie Garner's distinguished 40-plus-year career has included concert promotion, record label A&R, television production, and artist management. A native of Milwaukee who was raised in Illinois, she graduated from Southern Illinois University. One of her first jobs was working with Playboy Press in Chicago and at the Playboy Mansion on Hugh Hefner's staff. Moving to LA, she became talent coordinator for the syndicated TV show, Playboy After Dark. She relocated to New York City with ABC-TV's Dick Cavett Show. She then joined legendary promoter Bill Graham's Fillmore East just a year before he shuttered the club. Bonnie joined the A&R staff at Columbia Records New York as the only female A&R executive in the label's pop division. In the early 70s, she moved to Nashville to set up Columbia / Epic's first Nashville pop division. In 1973, she joined the label's country division as director of A&R, and in 1984, she was promoted to vice president of A&R, the first woman to attain that position at CBS Records and one of the few in the entire music industry. In 1987, Bonnie
left CBS Records and joined Mark Rothbaum & Associates - later Rothbaum & Garner. The company managed the careers of Emmylou Harris, the Highwaymen, Kris Kristofferson, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson and Marty Stuart, among others. The two split amicably in 1994, and she formed Bonnie Garner Management, whose roster included Lynn Anderson, Lee Roy Parnell, Stuart and Joy Lynn White. She received a Grammy Award in 2002 for co- producing Timeless, a tribute to Hank Williams.

She retired in 2007 to devote her free time to working with animals and in 2009 received her certification as a therapeutic riding instructor. She now teaches horseback riding to challenged children at Saddle Up! Bonnie was honored at the Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum at the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010 and later this year will receive the "Award of Caring" from Actors and Others for Animals.