Duane Allen Shares How His Church Saved Him After Wife’s Death

Oak Ridge Boys singer Duane Allen admits he was very lost after the death of his wife in 2024. But in a new interview, he reveals how his church community stepped in to lift him up after her passing.

The 82-year-old Country Music Hall of Famer tells Taste of Country that after his wife, Norah Lee Allen, died on Easter in 2024, he went through a period of such deep depression that he was almost entirely homebound, holing up in his house for months when he was not working the road.

“When I lost my wife, it caused me to really shut everything down, because it was devastating to me,” Allen says.

“I did not even go out of my house to any event other than to do my shows, and I would get off stage and quickly go to the bus. But I did not go out of my house but five times the rest of the year,” he shares.

READ MORE: Duane Allen Reveals “Very Special” Song He Recorded for His Late Wife

Allen was dealing with more than the loss of his wife. William Lee Golden’s son Rusty died on July 1, 2024, and longtime Oak Ridge Boys singer Joe Bonsall died on July 9 at age 76 as a result of complications from ALS — and that was just the start.

All told, the Oaks lost 16 people who were either family members, close friends or part of their team within a few months’ time.

“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,” Allen says.

He had even stopped attending church in person, watching remotely from home or on the road each week — that is, until his church community stepped in to lift him up in a most unexpected way.

The legendary entertainer was going through his wife’s clothing in her closet around Christmas 2024 when he received a call from a neighbor, who told him there was a bus in front of his house. The people on board had all gotten off and were standing in front of his house.

By the time Allen got the call and went to the door, the bus was pulling off of his street. But as he found out, “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.”

Allen eventually began to attend church in person again, and just after Easter in 2025 — which marked 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 marked the first time Allen had sung at his church in all the years he’s been attending, and “it was one of the most uplifting things that has happened to me in the last year,” he tells us. “It gave me a new way of feeling about going to church, and I’ve been to church every Sunday since.”

The Oak Ridge Boys had intended to retire at the end of 2024, but the group decided to continue on, with a new album and a busy slate of tour dates for the second half of 2025.

Allen says there are currently no more plans to bring the Oak Ridge Boys to a close.

“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 states.

“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.”