Doc Williams
Singer, Musical Artist
1914 – 2011
Who was Doc Williams?
Doc Williams was an influential American country music band leader and vocalist.
Born as Andrew John Smik, Jr. in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, 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.
In 1939, Williams married Jessie Wanda Crupe, a singer who soon adopted the stage name Chickie Williams. 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, aged 96.
We need you!
Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!
Citation
Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Doc Williams." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/doc_williams>.
Discuss this Doc Williams biography with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In