As LAMW springboarded the addition of Shreveport, Louisiana to its growing roster through establishing an  annual Musical Extravaganza and the opening of the Veva Helena Williams School of Music, Bernice Turner used her influence to aid the Louisianan expansion events.  For her priceless assistance both now and in the past, Los Angeles Music Week appreciates her earnest partnership.

This year’s recipient of the United Music Heritage Pioneer Award, Ms. Bernice Hilburn Turner, is a grand living documentary of Southern music history. Music has been the driving force of her existence all of her life.  Born into a musical family, she began performing at age four with her cousin, mostly before family and friends in her native Black Rock, Arkansas.   After developing her instrumental prowess in the Mandolin, bass, piano and drums, Bernice was playing with a group on radio station WDLP in Panama City, Florida at age 16.  A certain spark developed  between her and the group’s steel guitar player, Doyle Turner, who soon married Bernice as they decided to form their own group.  By her 17th. birthday, Bernice Turner found herself a core member of one of country music’s most legendary bands.  Resting after playing in a parade in downtown Panama City , the Turners encountered and struck up a conversation with an old friend, Don Helms, who was a steel guitar player for Hank Williams Sr.  The senior Williams is considered country music’s Beethoven.  Upon Helms informing the Turners that he’s just exited his slot in Williams’ band, he shared that he had taken the liberty of recommending the Turners to fill the band’s need for rhythm and steel guitar. 

Hank Williams Sr. invited the young couple to audition in Montgomery, Alabama and enthusiastically signed the Turners as members of his legendary band, the Drifting Cowboys.  Becoming fast friends with Hank’s wife Audrey, Bernice was at the epicenter of country music, barnstorming from one radio station to  another throughout the United States until her husband Doyle was drafted into the service.  After his stint, the Turners reformed their own band while beginning to raise a family, touring anywhere the gigs were good and the promoters were honest.  The band made a name for themselves, sharing bookings with Elvis, the Carter Sisters and countless performers who, along with the Turners, made the country music industry grow into a musical idiom.  However, this was long before the coast to coast acceptance of country music, platinum records, etc.  Deciding to sacrifice their career for the good of their five children, the Turners officially retired from the performing circuit.  Once the children were raised to adulthood, the couple divorced.  Perhaps naturally, all of them are involved in the entertainment field.

In 1977, Bernice formed the Silver Eagle Bus Service Inc. and again found herself in the thick of the business side of music.  The many friends she made in the industry multiplied greatly as she rented, drove and even helped repair her fleet of buses as they traveled coast to coast.  Her public relations, management and networking talents developed into her past associations as President of the Memphis Music Association, Board Member and Director of Artist Relations for the Blues Foundation, Board Member and Treasurer of the Jazz Foundation and helpful friend to many of today’s performers.  Bernice was always generous with sharing her home, money and time with the industry’s newcomers.  Appointed in 1988 by Congress as a Founding Member of the Congressional Award Council for the Ninth District of Tennessee for recognition of young people’s achievements, ages 14 to 23, Bernice is also a working Board Member of the Touch of Life Group Home for Young People.  She has just formed a new company, Entertainment Complex International, with Winston “Buz” Willis, to manage the internationally renowned superstars, Kool and the Gang.  Additionally, Bernice is refurbishing ONYX Recording Studio, a recent purchase from  the BarKays.   Among her numerous live and performing credits are the recent albums, “The Restless Kind,” by Travis Tritt, “It’s Now or Never,” a Musical Tribute to Elvis Presley, the motion picture soundtracks, “Dick Tracy,” “8 Seconds,” “Honeymoon in Vegas”, “Maverick” and “Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man,” along with multiple full artist endorsements, awards, television appearances and features in live events as well as over 60 recordings, spanning all musical genres.   Her past, present and future involvement in the entertainment industry makes Bernice Hilburn Turner a musical pioneer.