Guy and Ralna
Lawrence Welk Show Favorites
The once husband and wife duo on the Lawrence Welk Show who sang many favorites, including,Gospel, Country and Western, and many love songs reflecting the great love they had for each other. Later, they drifted apart, like many couples do and divorced in 1984.
Ralna and Guy
Biography
As a husband and wife duo in the mid-1960s, Guy Hovis and Ralna English have worked together through a range of genres including gospel music, love songs, and country & western.
Ralna first met Guy, at the "The Horn," a top-rung nightclub in Santa Monica, California. At the time Ralna and Guy got together, Ralna already had a music career well in the works. She had performed in Las Vegas with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Jr. and the Kirby Stone Four. She toured as an a cappella singer in Puerto Rico and performed for military men overseas with the U.S.O. in the Philippines, Thailand, and Japan. After Guy and Ralna got together, the couple became a popular gospel duo, releasing two noteworthy albums, Give Me That Old Time Religion and How Great Thou.
Next, in pursuing her long-time dream to perform on the Lawrence Welk's television show (mostly because her grandmother loved it so much), Ralna set up the interview she had been waiting for so many years, in 1969. The producers signed her as one of the show's soloists, and a few months later, Ralna moved the love of her life right in beside her. Together the duo was an inspiration to American television, with a loving relationship mirroring the lyrics of their love songs. The loving newlyweds fell out of love and separated in 1978 but, having made a professional decision to keep their private life out of public eye, it was business as usual on the screen, long after their feelings and relationship had subsided.
The couple continued working together for several years after their separation. In 1982, they released another gospel album entitled The Lord's Prayer, but Ralna was getting more anxious to pursue a solo career. Although it wasn't a widely publicized affair, Guy and Ralna officially divorced in 1984.
Currently, Ralna is pursuing the solo career she wanted and is well on her way to stardom.
Ralna and Guy
Green Eyes
True Love
You Light Up My Life
I Can't Stop Loving You
Let It Be Me
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Give Me That Old Time Religion
It Is No Secret, What God Can Do
Answer Me, My Love
Away in a Manger - Daughter Julie in This Video With Guy and Ralna
I Write the Songs
22 Great Songs of Faith~CD
Best Loved Hymns by Guy and Ralna - 1997 CD
A Little About Ralna English
Ralna Eve English American born singer (born June 19, 1942) was born in Haskell, the seat of Haskell County, north of Abilene, Texas. She was famous as part of the husband & wife singing duo of Guy & Ralna with then-husband Guy Hovis both of whom were featured performers on The Lawrence Welk Show.
English was reared in Lubbock, whereas a teenager, won a local battle of the bands competition with her group "Ralna and the Ad-Libs". One of her competitors was legendary rock star Buddy Holly, a Lubbock native.
After attending Texas Tech University, and singing jingles for television commercials in Dallas, she relocated to California in the late 1960s where she performed regularly at The Horn nightclub in Santa Monica.
It was there that she met fellow aspiring performer Guy Hovis, a native of Mississippi. They were married on January 25, 1969.
Later that year, she joined Lawrence Welk on his television program originally as a soloist. In the first year, husband Guy joined the program, and for the next thirteen years, until the show ended its run in 1982, Guy & Ralna became one of the most popular acts on the show.
Although they divorced in 1984, they are still good friends and often perform together in concert venues. They are the parents of an adopted daughter Julie (born 1977). English is single, but Hovis has remarried.
In March 2007, Ralna's solo TV special, "Ralna English: From My Heart" premiered nationally on PBS stations across the US. In it, she performed with a 75-piece orchestra and 100 voice choir. The show was a fundraiser for public television and viewers can pledge for a DVD or CD of the program.
In 2007, Ralna also published a "Ralna English Family Cookbook" that was offered with her TV special. Recipes are from her two sisters, Sharon and Jane, as well as her aunts, grandmother, mother and other relatives.
Now living in Scottsdale, Arizona, she still maintains a busy concert schedule, either performing as a solo act, or with Guy Hovis, (Guy & Ralna) who was an aide, based in Jackson, Mississippi, to his longtime friend, former U.S. Senator Trent Lott, a Republican.
A Little About Guy Hovis
Guy Hovis, a vocalist, was born in Tupelo, MS on September 25, 1941. He attended the University of Mississppi and originally wanted to be an accountant, but soon found music and showbiz more inviting. While paying his dues in nightclubs all over Los Angeles, he married Ralna English in 1969. The next year, he joined his wife on the Lawrence Welk Show as one half of "Guy & Ralna" which was one of the show's most popular acts. Since Welk, he has remarried, recently to Sarah (Sis) Lundy, and has worked as State Director for US Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi). While not working in politics, he sings live, as a soloist or with his ex-wife Ralna, and spends time with his daughter Julie.
Favorite Hymns~ 1995 CD
Best of Ralna English 3-CD Set~2004
Lawrence Welk~TV Favorites~1992 CD
Lawrence Welk~Precious Memories-Classic Hymns DVD
Guy and Ralna
Ralna English
Concert in August 2009
Guy & Ralna of The Lawrence Welk Show will perform a concert on August 2, 2009 at Emens Auditorium in Muncie.
In their live, 80-minute patriotic concert, the duo will pay a special patriotic salute to all five branches of our Armed Forces. They will also perform big band, gospel, pop and country tunes with an 11-piece band. Some of the patriotic tunes that Guy & Ralna will perform include: God Bless America, Ragged Old Flag, Let the Eagle Soar, God Bless the USA, Let There Be Peace on Earth, Strike Up the Band, and the Armed Forces Medley. Ralna will perform, A Song of Peace, and Guy will perform his fabulous Let the Eagle Soar solo he performed for the Presidential Inauguration in 2004.
Did You Know?
Guy and Ralna Officially Divorced in 1984.