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.”
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.
"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.
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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.)
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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).
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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".
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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)