Clyde Bo Pickler couldn’t be prouder of the woman his daughter Country music singer Kellie Pickler has become, he can’t take much credit for it, nor does he intends to do it, Clyde wasn’t by his daughter’s side most of her life, but it wasn’t too late for a father to mend his ways and give his daughter all the love, support she needs; luckily for Clyde Pickler Jr. it wasn’t too late.
26-year-old Kellie Pickler was born in North Carolina on June 28, 1986 to 48-year-old Cynthia Malone , now Cynthia Miller from Monroe, NC and 48-year-old Clyde Bo Raymond Pickler Jr.
Her mom Cynthia with whom she has been estranged since she was a child once said she lived a life of abuse ever since she was a little girl by the hands of her own father, desperate for a way out of her parents’ house and when she was 16 she met Clyde Pickler, they fell in love and Cynthia got pregnant, she left her house, moved in with Clyde and got married, but according to Cynthia not everything was joy and laughter and soon her husband began to beat her too.
She left her daughter by the time she was two, she said it was the only choice she had if she wanted to stay alive, Kellie first lived with her father Clyde Jr. but his erratic behavior send him to prison and she was send to her grandparents.
The paternal grandparents, made sure she grew up surrounded by love, happiness and protection, meanwhile Clyde would only watch his daughter when his parents took her to visit him in jail; despite this Kellie had good memories of her absent father.
When I was 2, my mother left me. I remember going to different prisons with my grandparents to visit my father on weekends. My father did a lot of stupid things, but when I lived with him, I never had to do without. It didn’t matter what he had to do, he’d make sure I went to bed with food in my stomach. When he was sober, he was a good person.
Clyde Raymond Pickler Jr. was born on December 15, 1964 the son of Clyde and Faye Pickler, who by 2003 he had his first arrest, he was charged with stabbing a law enforcement officer/firefighter /EMT, three felony counts of larceny of a motor vehicle and one felony count of obtaining property under false pretense.
He was serving his sentence in his Florida prison cell when his 19-year-old daughter appeared in American Idol, Clyde Bo spoke about that emotional moment..
“Kellie has really touched my life with all she has overcome,” he wrote. “I can take no credit for anything she has accomplished in her 19 years of life. I’m only regretting the fact that I’m not there to support her in person.
“However, despite what some people may think, Kellie and I are very close.
“No, I’ve not been the father (by far) that I should have been. But, our love for each other is what it is. I’m her daddy and she’s my little girl, just like anyone else.”
Clyde Pickler got out of jail on May 12, 2006, and send back behind bars by July, 2007 he was charged with stealing older abandoned and disabled vehicles and illegally selling them to scrap yards, it is unknown when Clyde Pickler got out of jail this time, but he and his famous and talented daughter worked on their father-daughter relationship by 2010. During an interview on the View she spoke about how things were going between them..
“We all have our speed bumps that we hit in the road. I know that the media has kind of put him out there as this really, really bad person. Of course he’s made bad choices but he is a good father. I spent a lot of my childhood with him, whenever he was not incarcerated.
“He spent a lot of time teaching me how to fend for myself. He taught me my life skills. I know how to survive and make something from nothing and he taught me how to do that.
“He’s the person I call dad regardless; I’m a daddy’s girl. I learned the hard way that it’s so important to come to this place of forgiveness because, in the long run, hating anybody is only hurting yourself.”
Kellie’s dad Clyde Bo Pickler was featured on the semifinals episode at the 16th season of Dancing With the Stars.
