Y age 16, Nelson had fallen in love with and quickly married a man named Bud Fletcher, who recognized the siblings' talent. Despite having no musical skills himself, Fletcher built a band called Bud Fletcher and The Texans featuring the siblings, with the Nelsons' father playing rhythm guitar. And because she was with her family, Bobbie Nelson was able to slip into bars to play - a scandalous situation for a young woman. The marriage began to fall apart, though, and The Texans disbanded in 1955 when Fletcher and Nelson divorced. But because of the shame of Bobbie's work in honky-tonks, initial custody of their three young sons was given to Fletcher's parents - and Nelson couldn't continue to play in bars. In a 2008 feature on All Things Considered, Nelson reflected on this difficult time in her life. "I thought, 'How can I earn enough money to support my children and to show the world that I can support my children? I want my babies,'" she remembered. "And that was the hardest part of my life. And I couldn't play with Willie at that time, because I wasn't supposed to even enter into a club. They would not have agreed to let me have my children back.".
