Oak Ridge Boys’ Duane Allen Finds Solace in Church Community After Profound Loss
Duane Allen, the esteemed 82-year-old Country Music Hall of Famer and singer for the Oak Ridge Boys, recently shared the profound impact his church community had on him after the devastating loss of his wife, Norah Lee Allen, who passed away on Easter in 2024.1 In a new interview with Taste of Country, Allen admitted he was “very lost” and entered a period of deep depression that left him largely homebound for months.2
“When I lost my wife, it caused me to really shut everything down, because it was devastating to me,” Allen revealed. He described how he barely left his house, venturing out only for performances, quickly retreating to his bus after shows.3 “I did not go out of my house but five times the rest of the year,” he shared.
A Cascade of Tragedies
Allen’s grief was compounded by a series of other heart-wrenching losses within the Oak Ridge Boys’ circle. William Lee Golden’s son Rusty passed away on July 1, 2024, followed shortly by longtime Oak Ridge Boys singer Joe Bonsall, who died on July 9 at age 76 from complications of ALS. These were just the beginning. In a few short months, the band tragically lost 16 individuals who were either family members, close friends, or part of their dedicated team.
The sheer volume of loss left Allen struggling to cope. “I couldn’t complete a sentence. I couldn’t talk about her. I couldn’t talk about Joe, or Rusty, or any of the other 16 people we lost during that time period without my voice starting to quiver, and basically, when I start crying, I can’t sing or talk,” he explained. The weight of his grief even led him to stop attending church in person, instead watching services remotely from home or while on tour.
A Serenade of Support and Renewed Faith
It was during this period of immense sadness, around Christmas 2024, that his church community stepped in in a most unexpected and uplifting way. As Allen was going through his wife’s clothing, a neighbor called to tell him a bus full of people from his church was outside his house, serenading him with Christmas carols. By the time he reached the door, the bus was pulling away, but the message was clear. “My pastor and musical director and a bunch of people from my church had come to serenade me with Christmas carols. That’s the kind of church I have,” he recounted.
This touching gesture was a turning point. Allen eventually began attending church in person again. Just after Easter in 2025, marking a year since his wife’s passing, the music minister at his church invited him to sing at both Sunday services, accompanied by the full church choir and orchestra. It was the first time Allen had ever sung at his church, and it proved to be incredibly therapeutic. “It was one of the most uplifting things that has happened to me in the last year,” he shared. “It gave me a new way of feeling about going to church, and I’ve been to church every Sunday since.”
A Future on the Road
Despite initially planning to retire at the end of 2024, the Oak Ridge Boys have decided to continue, with a new album and a busy schedule of tour dates for the second half of 2025.4 Allen confirmed there are currently no plans for the group to conclude their musical journey.
“Right now, I don’t have any end date in sight. I just started my 60th year with the Oak Ridge Boys, and I have no one to come home to,” he stated, highlighting the solace he finds in his career and his fans.5 “Singing and the fans on the road, they’re all my family now. And this group of guys I work with, we all love each other, and we love what we do. So I don’t know when the end date will be.”