Bonnie Koloc

It's been said that together with Steve Goodman and John Prine, Bonnie Koloc made up the trinity of the Chicago Folk Scene. Not much has really been written about her, and today she is sometimes forgotten. Perhaps that is the way she wants it to be. Born in Iowa, she was the first in her family to go to college, attending a teacher's college, The University of Northern Iowa. She grew up in Waterloo, Iowa where her father worked at the John Deere Factory. They lived in a "cement block house." Bonnie majored first in Drama and then Art, paying her way through college by singing. This led to bad grades and eventually she gave up on college and went to Chicago to pursue her singing career. When Bonnie was a child she wanted to be an actress, artist, or singer, but she knew she didn't want to end up in a factory job. While she is well known for her music, she has also managed to fulfill her other childhood dreams, performing in a couple critically acclaimed plays, winning the Theatre World Bronze Award for her role in Joseph Papp's Broadway production of "The Human Comedy." With the death of her longtime boy friend in the early 80s, Bonnie left Chicago for New York and started "dabbling" in art again. By 1988 she was finishing up a B.A. in Art, and had been planning on getting an M.A. in Art. While Bonnie has been concentrating on her art work she has not given up on singing. In 1988 she was planning to move to Nashville, marry a writer from Connecticut and continue to write songs and sing and take guitar lessons.

(Information posted: January, 1999)