Doc Williams born 26 June 1914

Doc Williams (June 26, 1914 – January 31, 2011) was an influential American country music band leader and vocalist who became the longest performing member (61 years) of W.W.V.A’s “Wheeling Jamboree.”

Doc Williams was born Andrew John Smik Jr.in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of parents who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. Andrew Sr. and Susie would have five children--Doc the oldest. When Doc was two years old, the family moved to a farm in Cowansville, Pennsylvania. Six years later, the family moved to the little village of Tarrtown, on the Allegheny River. Mud roads, coal oil lamps, pot-bellied stoves, swimming and fishing in the river, and country music on the radio were all part of his growing-up years.

Doc's father taught him most everything he knew about music; and there was always an old fiddle, a cornet, and other instruments around their home. By age 12, Doc had learned to play the cornet by note, and could play many songs from the family hymnbook. He also played the trumpet, accordion, and guitar and had a natural love for music. His father bought him a guitar for $3.00 at a pawnshop, and brother Cy, who was six years younger than Doc, got a fiddle.

In 1929, as he was about to enter the 10th grade, Doc had to quit school so that he could help support his family. He would work alongside his father for a couple years in the coal mines, which he left to pursue his dream of becoming a country music entertainer.

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. They won the Silver Trophy as the most popular act during the radio station"s on-air popularity contest from March 14-19, 1938.

Doc met his future wife at the Reawood Dance Hall in Hickory, Pennsylvania, when she wrote to him requesting a personal appearance there. It was love at first sight for Doc and in 1939, Williams married Jessie Wanda Crupe, who soon adopted the stage name Chickie Williams (February 13, 1919 – November 18, 2007).They made their home in Wheeling, and had three daughters, Barbara, Madeline, and Karen. The girls were known over the radio and on stage as Peeper, Pooch, and Punkin, and made their debut on the Jamboree at ages, 7, 5, and 4. They also travelled with their parents' show during school vacations.

                               

"Doc Williams and the Border Riders" became a household name in the heavily populated Northeastern United States and Canada, due to their broadcasts over power-station WWVA. Marion Martin, "Famous Blind Accordionist," joined Doc's show after World War Two, and played harmony to Cy Williams' "silver voiced" fiddle. Thus the "Doc Williams Sound" was born. The radio listeners loved this traditional country music sound.

In 1949, Doc started his pioneering road tours. His was the first WWVA act to tour long-distance out of Wheeling. Their first tour took the group 1000 miles to Aroostook County in northern Maine with no guarantee that even expenses would be met. However, Doc had not anticipated the popularity of his radio shows as heard over the Wheeling Jamboree in those days. The crowds were huge throughout the 10-day tour, and two shows had to be scheduled each night. When Doc returned home, he bought a new car. (The trip to Maine was in a borrowed car with its driver.)

Later tours took the Doc Williams Show to the Maritime Provinces in Canada, then to Ontario, to Quebec, and to New England. In 1952, the show toured the island of Newfoundland for three weeks (the people there were avid listeners of the Wheeling Jamboree).

The Williams' were popular performers but 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 officially retired from WWVA in 2006 when he published his autobiography, “Looking Back.”He died on January 31, 2011 in Wheeling, West Virginia, aged 96.

(Edited from Wikipedia & DocWillams.com)