Background
Barbara Anne Marie Wellhöner Jakobs was born in Bielefeld, Germany on January 10, 1950.
record producer music publisher
Barbara Anne Marie Wellhöner Jakobs was born in Bielefeld, Germany on January 10, 1950.
Aged 18 years old, Barbara met the 32-year-old Orbison when he asked friends to introduce him to her at a nightclub in Leeds, England, during Orbison"s tour of Great Britain. During the 1980s, she managed her husband"s career and was the executive producer of his 1987 album, In Dreams: The Greatest Hits plus his highly acclaimed January 1988 televised music special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. Following her husband"s death on 6 December 1988, she took charge of his business affairs and dedicated herself to promoting his music to ensuing generations.
She co-produced Only the Lonely: The Roy Orbison Story, a European stage musical.
In late 1993, the family home in Malibu was destroyed by brush fires. Although she maintained a residence on the West Coast, she returned to Nashville where she purchased a home as well as a commercial property to house her music publishing business.
Her company, "Still Working Music" employs songwriters such as Tommy Lee James and Chase Bryant. Orbison was also involved with charitable causes in aid of the homeless.
Foreign Showtime, in 1990, she produced a Roy Orbison tribute at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles that raised in excess of $1 million for the city"s homeless.
She personally funded "Orbison House", a 21-unit residence for the mentally impaired homeless of Los Los Angeles She produced Damien Leith"s album, Roy: A Tribute To Roy Orbison, which was released by Sony BMG in Australia on 15 April 2011 to coincide with what would have been Roy Orbison"s 75th birthday. Barbara Orbison was hospitalised from May 2011 until her death on 6 December 2011, aged 61, from pancreatic cancer, 23 years to the day after her husband"s death.
She was buried next to her husband at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Los Angeles
This was followed by a celebration of her life in Nashville, Tennessee.
