Kenny Rogers flashes an easy smile while seated in an ornate theater surrounded by red velvet seats in an archival portrait. Sporting his characteristic full beard, flowing dark hair, and wire-rimmed glasses, the musician relaxes in a navy velvet button-up shirt accented with gold buttons, paired with a gold chain necklace and rings. | Source: Getty Images
Sadly, their marriage ended in 1960, and the separation from his daughter became an especially difficult part of that history. Kenny was granted two hours of visitation each week, but over the following 15 years, he reportedly visited Carole just once.
Janice remarried, and her new husband became the father who raised Carole. Kenny described his decision to step back in a sentence that is awfully hard to read without pausing. "That was my promise to them, that I would be her father but he (his ex-wife's second husband) would be her Dad, and I don't want to disrupt that," he said when asked whether they were in contact.
Kenny Rogers, then bass player and singer for The First Edition, poses alongside an unidentified woman and young girl at The Bitter End nightclub on November 8, 1967, in New York City. Sporting a dark leather coat over a turtleneck, Kenny smiles as the woman rests a hand on the smiling young girl in a velvet dress with white lace trim. | Source: Getty Images
