Vic Willis born 31 May 1922

John "Vic" Willis (31 May 1922- 1995) was a a singer, accordion, piano and member of the Grand Ole Opry through his work with The Willis Brothers and, later, the Vic Willis Trio, he spent his final 13 years as the secretary for the musicians' union in Nashville.

James "Guy" Willis, Charles "Skeeter" Willis, and John "Vic" Willis started playing music on their family farm as kids. As teenagers in 1932, the Willis Brothers formed the Oklahoma Wranglers, formed as a band, playing a blend of Western swing and cowboy. Skeeter Willis sang and fiddled; Guy sang lead and played guitar; and, in the original line up, eldest brother Joe played along. The Willis Brothers played on Shawnee, OK's KGEF throughout the '30s. In 1939, Joe married and left, and Vic, who played accordion, piano, and sang, joined.

The brothers moved to Kansas City to appear on Brush Street Follies until 1942, when they disbanded to fight in the war. Reunited in 1946, they joined the Grand Ole Opry and signed to Sterling Records, and had the distinction of backing Hank Williams on his first recordings. 

In 1949, the group left the Opry and toured nationally with Eddy Arnold through 1957. They also performed in the films Feuding Rhythm and Hoe Down. In an attempt to play to an audience beyond just Western fans, the Oklahoma Wranglers name was dropped for the Willis Brothers. In the late 1950s, the Willis Brothers hosted a live noonday TV show on WRPG-TV, the NBC affiliate in Chattanooga, TN. Guy, Vic and Skeeter were accompanied by Chuck Wright, who played bass in full Indian headdress. Guy Willis also hosted an afternoon children’s program on the same station for several years.

                                  

The band recorded steadily with Mercury, RCA, and Coral before signing with Starday and finally charting with the truck-driving country hit "Give Me 40 Acres (To Turn This Rig Around)" in 1964 after which they had a few lesser entries to follow...But they were used to plugging away as second stringers: their big hit came nearly two decades after they started playing together, and even though they fell off the charts, they recorded and performed prolifically, regularly appearing on the Grand Ole Opry while cutting countless singles and albums for Starday Records. They recorded a whole slew of trucker songs and other novelty numbers, always looking for trend or a surprise hit to put the wind in their sails.

The band broke up in the '70s: Skeeter passed away in 1976, followed by Guy in 1981. Vic Willis formed a Trio with C.W. Mitchell and Curtis Young debuting on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time in November, 1980. The Vic Willis Trio remained a fixture on the Opry. Vic served an unusual role in the Grand Ole Opry cast from the early 1960s through the 1980s, producing and recording commercial jingles from his home recording studio, recording hundreds of commercials featuring country artists and others, for local Nashville and national sponsors, such as Big Star Stores, Kellogg's (for which they also performed live commercial jingles on the Grand Ole Opry when they were in town), Fender Musical Instruments, Acme Boots, Lava Soap, Luzianne Coffee, Levy's Men's Wear, and others.

Vic's Trio emained an Opry regular, until 1995, when Vic died in a car crash near the Meriwether Lewis Park and Monument on the Natchez Trace, at age 73.

Most of the Willis Brothers recordings remain out of print, which perhaps isn't so surprising since even in their heyday they weren't exactly the hottest band in the land. Still, those old albums are worth tracking down just to see what a hard-working, old-school hard-country band sounded like, plugging away in an era of slick Nashville pop.

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Slipcue)