Ronnie Shacklett: Inside His Long Marriage to Brenda Lee

Ronnie Shacklett married Brenda Lee on April 24, 1963, less than six months after meeting the 18-year-old singer at Nashville’s Fairgrounds Coliseum.

Their marriage has lasted more than 63 years, spanning Lee’s transition from teenage pop star to Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and double Hall of Fame inductee.

The couple raised two daughters, Julie and Jolie, while maintaining a family life far quieter than Lee’s recording career. Here is their documented story.

Ronnie Shacklett’s Quick Facts

Who Is Ronnie Shacklett?

Charles Ronald “Ronnie” Shacklett is best known as the longtime husband of Brenda Lee, the singer behind “I’m Sorry” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

Their relationship began in Nashville in November 1962. Lee was already an international recording star with two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles.

Shacklett entered her life after “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted” topped the Hot 100 in 1960. Lee was still working under Decca Records.

He subsequently accompanied her through more than six decades of changing musical trends, career honors, international appearances, and renewed holiday-chart success.

Ronnie’s public identity remains closely tied to the marriage and family he built with Lee rather than to an entertainment career of his own.

How They First Met

Ronnie Shacklett and Brenda Lee met at Nashville’s Fairgrounds Coliseum during a November 1962 concert featuring Jackie Wilson and Bo Diddley.

Lee was 17 and had recently returned to the United States after building a large audience in Britain and other international markets.

According to Lee’s later account, she noticed Shacklett at the show and was attracted to both his appearance and the Corvette he drove.

The singer passed him a note containing her name and telephone number. She also explained that work would take her to Europe for three months.

Shacklett contacted her after she returned to the United States. Their courtship progressed quickly, and marriage followed within approximately six months.

Brenda Made the First Move

Lee has openly acknowledged that she initiated the connection. Her handwritten note to Shacklett began a relationship that outlasted most celebrity marriages of their era.

At the time, her recording schedule was unusually demanding. She had started making professional appearances as a child and signed with Decca at age 11.

Touring also made an ordinary courtship difficult. Lee’s warning about leaving for Europe reflected the international workload she carried before turning 18.

Shacklett’s decision to call after she returned allowed the relationship to continue despite that separation. They soon became engaged.

Lee kept the engagement from her family for three months. That decision reflected her certainty, even though her mother did not initially support the proposed marriage.

Their 1963 Wedding

Ronnie Shacklett and Brenda Lee eloped on April 24, 1963. Lee was 18, and her husband was reportedly 19 at the time.

The ceremony came during one of Lee’s busiest recording periods. Her 1963 releases included “Losing You,” which reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Marriage did not interrupt her career. Lee continued recording for Decca and appearing before audiences in the United States and overseas.

Her mother was initially unhappy about the elopement, a detail Lee discussed decades later while revisiting the wedding for the PBS series American Masters.

What began as a teenage decision became one of popular music’s longest marriages. The couple marked 60 years together in April 2023.

Life With a Touring Star

Shacklett married a performer whose professional life had begun before adolescence. Lee was earning money for her family through singing appearances by age 10.

Decca released her first single, “Jambalaya,” in 1956. Producer Owen Bradley later shaped recordings that crossed pop, rockabilly, and country formats.

The touring calendar remained extensive after the wedding. Lee appeared at venues including the London Palladium and built an especially enthusiastic following in Britain.

Her voice sounded larger than her 4-foot-9-inch frame, inspiring the “Little Miss Dynamite” nickname connected to her 1957 recording “Dynamite.”

Ronnie experienced the less visible side of that success, including long trips, publicity obligations, studio sessions, and recurring separations created by touring.

Meet Their Family

Ronnie and Brenda became parents less than a year after their wedding. Their first daughter, Julie Shacklett, arrived on April 2, 1964.

Julie was born six weeks prematurely at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. Lee was 19 by the time of the birth.

Their second daughter, Jolie Shacklett, arrived several years later. Brenda and Ronnie generally kept both girls beyond the daily reach of entertainment coverage.

The family occasionally appeared together, including at a Nashville Christmas parade in 1972. Such appearances were exceptions rather than a continuing publicity strategy.

Their publicly documented family milestones include:

• Two daughters, Julie and Jolie; three grandchildren, Taylor, Jordan, and Charley; Julie’s 1986 marriage to Keith Clay; and family appearances honoring Lee’s career.

Julie Shacklett’s Life

Julie Shacklett is the couple’s elder daughter. Her premature birth came while her mother was still balancing teenage fame with a new marriage.

She married Keith Clay in October 1986 and later became a parent. Lee has described her daily life as including her husband, children, and grandchildren.

Julie also participated in preserving her mother’s career history. She helped Lee write the autobiography Little Miss Dynamite.

Hyperion published Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee in 2002, the same year Lee entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

That collaboration gave Julie a documented role in telling the family’s story without turning her own life into a continuing public career.

Jolie Shacklett’s Life

Jolie Shacklett, Ronnie and Brenda’s younger daughter, has maintained an even lower public profile than her elder sister.

She has nevertheless joined her relatives at selected ceremonies celebrating Lee’s professional achievements in Nashville and beyond.

In 2002, Jolie attended a family luncheon marking her mother’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

She also appeared at the 2018 Music City Walk of Fame ceremony, where Lee received a star honoring her connection to Nashville.

Those appearances show the family accompanying Lee at career landmarks while keeping their personal lives separate from routine celebrity publicity.

His Role During Her Career

Ronnie Shacklett’s marriage to Lee overlapped with major changes in her career. Her early pop dominance gradually gave way to a stronger country focus.

Lee placed 46 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including the chart-toppers “I’m Sorry,” “I Want to Be Wanted,” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

During the 1970s, she increased her presence on the country chart. “Nobody Wins” became a Top 10 country hit in 1973.

Producer Ron Chancey guided another country resurgence with “Tell Me What It’s Like,” which reached No. 8 in 1979.

Shacklett remained part of Lee’s family life through each phase, including recordings, touring pauses, comeback singles, and institutional honors.

Her Greatest Career Honors

Lee entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997, recognition of a catalog that moved freely between country, pop, and early rock music.

Five years later, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted her in its performer category alongside Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Talking Heads.

The Recording Academy presented Lee with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. Her competitive Grammy history includes four nominations.

“I’m Sorry” entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” received the same honor in 2019.

Nashville added Lee to the Music City Walk of Fame in 2018, with members of the Shacklett family attending the public ceremony.

Their Marriage Through Fame

Ronnie Shacklett and Brenda Lee remained married while many of her contemporaries faced careers reshaped by changing formats and audience tastes.

Lee has credited commitment and loyalty for the relationship’s durability. She discussed those principles on Southern Living’s Biscuits & Jam podcast in December 2024.

Her comments did not present marriage as a promotional fairy tale. Instead, she connected its longevity to honoring a commitment once it had been made.

That approach mattered in a career involving international travel, irregular working hours, television engagements, and decades of public recognition.

The couple’s record is especially striking because Lee married during her initial commercial peak rather than after withdrawing from entertainment.

Their Private Home Life

Lee has repeatedly described herself as living a normal family-centered life despite the extraordinary reach of her recordings.

Her official biography says she enjoys spending time with her family and hosting a weekly Bible study with female friends.

Ronnie has appeared beside her at selected celebrations, but the couple has not built a commercial brand around their marriage.

Their daughters followed a similar pattern. Neither Julie nor Jolie pursued the type of constant public visibility often associated with celebrity families.

This separation allowed Lee’s records and performances to remain the center of her public identity while the Shacklett family retained personal boundaries.

A Christmas Record Returns

Lee recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in 1958 when she was 13. Johnny Marks wrote the song, and Owen Bradley produced it.

The record initially sold only about 5,000 copies. Its popularity expanded after Lee became a major pop act and grew again through annual holiday airplay.

A memorable use in the 1990 movie Home Alone introduced the recording to another generation more than three decades after its release.

On the Billboard chart dated December 9, 2023, the song finally reached No. 1, 65 years after its original release.

At 78, Lee became the oldest artist ever to top the Hot 100. Ronnie witnessed a recording from her childhood achieve its greatest chart result during their 61st year of marriage.

Her Recent Milestones

“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” surpassed one billion Spotify streams in December 2024, becoming the first holiday song by a female country artist to reach that mark.

The Recording Industry Association of America certified the single seven-times platinum, representing seven million certified units in the United States.

Lee celebrated her 80th birthday on December 11, 2024. That month, PBS premiered American Masters: Brenda Lee: Rockin’ Around.

The documentary included Lee’s memories of meeting Ronnie, hiding their engagement, and eloping six months after their first encounter.

Tennessee also designated “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” its official holiday song, another honor arriving more than six decades into the Shackletts’ marriage.

Is Ronnie on Social Media?

Ronnie Shacklett does not use a widely promoted public account as part of Brenda Lee’s official media presence.

Lee joined TikTok in 2023 while promoting the 65th anniversary of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and its first official music video.

The anniversary video featured Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood, two Nashville artists influenced by the musical generation Lee helped establish.

Ronnie’s limited online presence remains consistent with how he and Lee managed their family throughout her career.

He appears mainly through historical photographs, documentaries, interviews with Lee, and coverage of the couple’s major anniversaries.

Where Are They Today?

Ronnie Shacklett and Brenda Lee remain married more than six decades after their 1963 elopement.

Lee continues making selected appearances and discussing her career, although her schedule is far removed from the relentless touring of her teenage years.

A Spanish version of her Christmas classic, titled “Noche Buena y Navidad,” was released with her approval in October 2024.

The project used the original instrumental and background vocals with an authorized Spanish-language vocal model derived from Lee’s voice.

Family remains central to her life. Ronnie, their daughters, and their grandchildren form the private foundation behind her unusually public musical history.

A Marriage Built to Last

Ronnie Shacklett’s story cannot be separated from an impulsive note at a Nashville concert and the April 1963 elopement that followed.

The stronger measure of the relationship is time. It survived touring years, parenthood, career transitions, Hall of Fame ceremonies, and an unexpected Hot 100 return.

More than 63 years later, Ronnie Shacklett remains beside the singer he first met when Jackie Wilson and Bo Diddley shared a Nashville bill.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is Ronnie Shacklett?

Ronnie Shacklett is Brenda Lee’s husband. His full name is Charles Ronald Shacklett, and he has been married to the singer since April 24, 1963.

2. How did Ronnie meet Brenda?

The couple met in November 1962 at Nashville’s Fairgrounds Coliseum. Jackie Wilson and Bo Diddley were performing, and Lee gave Ronnie a note containing her telephone number.

3. When did they marry?

Ronnie Shacklett and Brenda Lee eloped on April 24, 1963. They married approximately six months after meeting and celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2023.

4. Do they have children?

Yes. Ronnie and Brenda have two daughters, Julie and Jolie Shacklett. Julie was born prematurely at Vanderbilt Hospital on April 2, 1964.

5. Did Brenda Lee propose?

Lee initiated their first contact by passing Ronnie her name and telephone number at the 1962 concert. She later kept their engagement secret from her family for three months.

6. What is Ronnie known for?

Ronnie is principally known for his long marriage to Brenda Lee and his place in her family history. Their relationship has continued through more than six decades of her recording career.

7. Are Ronnie and Brenda together?

Yes. The couple remain married after eloping in 1963. Their marriage had passed 63 years by April 2026.

8. How many grandchildren do they have?

Ronnie and Brenda have three grandchildren. Their publicly reported names are Taylor, Jordan, and Charley.

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