Doc Williams (June 26, 1914 – January 31, 2011) was an influential American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

band leader and

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

. Born as Andrew John Smik, Jr. in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and raised in

Kittanning, Pennsylvania Kittanning ( pronounced ) is a borough in, and the county seat of, Armstrong County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is situated northeast of Pittsburgh, along the east bank of the Allegheny River. The name is derived from ''Kithanink'' ...

, he got his professional start playing with the Kansas Clodhoppers during the early 1930s. Doc eventually formed his own band, Doc Williams and the Border Riders. The group went on the air on WWVA Wheeling in 1937; soon, with the addition of comedian Froggie Cortez and cowboy crooner "Big Slim the Lone Cowboy", and became one of the station's most popular attractions. He was associated with the radio station for over 40 years. In 1939, Williams married Jessie Wanda Crupe, a singer who soon adopted the stage name

Chickie Williams Jessie Wanda Williams (née Crupe), known under the stage name Chickie Williams, (February 13, 1919 – November 18, 2007) was an American country musician from West Virginia who is best known for performing on the Wheeling Jamboree radio program ...

(February 13, 1919 – November 18, 2007). The Williams' were popular performers. Although the couple and their band the Border Riders recorded, performed live and appeared on the radio for over five decades, they never had a national hit. Doc Williams founded Wheeling Records in 1947 and through it released all of his and his wife's albums; occasionally, they sang together, and sometimes with their three daughters. Among his best-known songs are "Willie Roy the Crippled Boy" and "My Old Brown Coat And Me". Williams died on January 31, 2011, in

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extendin ...

, aged 96.

References

Sources

*Ivan M. Tribe (1998). "Doc & Chickie Williams", ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury (ed.) New York:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

(pp. 588–589)

External links

Official website
1914 births 2011 deaths American country singer-songwriters People from Kittanning, Pennsylvania Singer-songwriters from Pennsylvania Country musicians from Pennsylvania {{US-country-singer-stub