Born in 1923 in Seattle, Washington, United States,[2] to John and Doris Buckingham, Bonnie was initially raised in Redondo Beach along Puget Sound.

In 1944 she married her former guitar teacher Paul Tutmarc;[3][4] the couple had one daughter, Paula (born 1950), but split up in 1955, and Bonnie moved to Los Angeles.

Through much of the 1950s, she worked as a session guitarist at quite a few small labels, like Abbot, Fabor, and Radio Recorders.

[2] Working at these places got Guitar noticed as a professional guitarist as she ended up playing on sessions for many well-known singers, like Jim Reeves, Dorsey Burnette, Ned Miller, and the DeCastro Sisters.

"I said, 'I'll give up my royalties and everything just to do this song,'" she told Robinson in recounting their collaboration on "Dark Moon" to Wayne Jancik in The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders.

When Bonnie's rendition of "Dark Moon" hit the country and pop charts in the Spring of 1957, she received recognition in the music business.

Only one other female country singer was achieving this type of crossover success Guitar was having at the time, which was Patsy Cline, when her single "Walkin' After Midnight" was a No.

"Dark Moon" brought Guitar a wide audience, and she was soon appearing on quite a few Pop Music programs.

[citation needed] In 1961, she appeared as herself on an episode of To Tell The Truth with Johnny Carson, Ralph Bellamy, Dina Merrill, and Betty White as panelists.

The album told a romantic story beginning with songs featuring themes about first sight, through courting, going steady, threats from others, getting engaged, getting it broken off, having the man marry someone else and finally having the woman live happily ever after on her own at the end.

[citation needed] White label charter test pressings of the original concept album exist, however, and most of the songs on it found their way onto subsequent albums, with the remaining material such as the country remake version of "Dark Moon" and Ned Miller's "Lucky Star" being featured in a 1972 Paramount Records double-album compilation of her work.

She lived in Soap Lake, Washington, and in 2014 started producing and writing music and still performed on weekends at the age of 92 with her band.

[citation needed] She raised cattle and quarter horses in Orting, Washington, with her second husband, Mario DePiano, whom she married in 1969.