His father, Jake Owens, was the subject of the song “Daddy Was An Old Time Preacher Man,” written by Parton and her aunt Dorothy Jo Hope.
[8] When Parton finished high school, Owens moved to Nashville and began performing as a guitarist with country music stars Carl and Pearl Butler, among others.
Owens and Parton signed songwriting contracts with Combine Music, and while there wrote “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” which became a number 6 hit on the Billboard Country Chart for Bill Phillips in April 1966.
[9] While still signed with Combine, Owens and Parton wrote a second hit for Phillips, “The Company You Keep,” which peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Country chart later that year.
[10] In 1967 they scored another success when Skeeter Davis reached number 11 on the Billboard Country chart with “Fuel to the Flame.”[11] All three of these songs would be recorded by Parton for her debut album “Hello, I’m Dolly," along with four others written or co-written by Owens.
He wrote or co-wrote songs for Parton's solo albums "In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)" (1969), "My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy" (1969), "The Fairest of Them All" (1970), "As Long as I Love" (1970), "Touch Your Woman" (1972), "Bubbling Over" (1973), and "Eagle When She Flies" (1991).