Along with her brother Jerry Rowley and Jerry’s wife Evelyn, Dido Rowley was one third of the Rowley Trio. They performed together, separately and with other performers, most notably as the backup band for Johnny Horton. At first they toured with Johnny Horton as "The Singing Fisherman and the Rowley Trio." Then they became, "Johnny Horton and the Roadrunners". The work with Johnny Horton started in September '52. Jerry Rowley played fiddle, his wife Evelyn played the piano and sister Vera (Dido) was on bass or guitar.
Dido Rowley hailed from Nederland, Texas. Dido, Jerry and Evelyn created a self-contained band that first backed Lefty Frizzell at Radio Station KFDM in Beaumont, Texas. The three of them then moved on to the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana. There Dido made contact with Johnny Horton and Fabor Robison. Johnny Horton was the Singing Fisherman at that point, and Fabor Robison was the owner of Abbott and Fabor Records. Fabor Robison signed the Rowleys, individually and as the Rowley Trio and jerry Rowley, to his record label while Johnny Horton picked them up as his band.
Johnny had the extra advantage of the Rowleys’ driving him to their gigs, though Johnny insisted on stopping off for breaks for hunting and fishing along the way. Eventually, he got his own Pontiac to get him to the shows himself. Abbott, Fabor and Radio Records put out releases by the Rowleys as well as Jim Reeves, Johnny Horton, and Bob Luman. Dido Rowley’s 1954 release as a single artist on Fabor was “The Hands of Time” b/w “Don't Forget to Bring Me Back Your Love,”though she also recorded a number of other songs in the Abbott Studios in Malibu, California.
In the 1960s, as Jeanna Claire, Dido had a kiddie television show in Houston and a Barrel o' Chicken chicken-restaurant franchise.
