Wilma Lee And Stoney Cooper
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Natives of opposite ends of mountainous Randolph County, West Virginia, Stoney hailed from a family of fiddlers while Wilma came from a family of sacred singers. After Stoney finished high school, he worked for a time as fiddler for Rusty Hiser’s Green Valley Boys at WMMN Fairmont, West Virginia. In the meantime the Singing Leary Family began their musical career at WSVA Harrisonburg, Virginia. When the Green Valley Boys dissolved, Stoney came back home and soon found that the Learys needed a fiddler. Jacob Leary offered Stoney the job and Stoney and Wilma soon became both singing pals and romantic partners. After the Learys moved to WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia, the couple married in 1941 and soon embarked on their own career at a string of radio stations: KMMJ Grand Island, Nebraska; WIBC Indianapolis; WMMN Fairmont, KLCN Blytheville, Arkansas; and finally WWNC Asheville, North Carolina, in 1947.
While in Asheville, the Coopers began recording for Jim Stanton’s Rich-R-Tone company, doing a second session for that firm later in the year when they relocated to WWVA Wheeling Jamboree, where they remained for a decade and became one of the most popular acts in the station’s history. In 1949, they began a five-year association with Columbia Records that yielded most of the songs that became their musical trademarks, including Sunny Side of the Mountain, Thirty Pieces of Silver, West Virginia Polka, White Rose and those memorable accounts of the Crucifixion, Legend Of The
In 1955, Wilma Lee and Stoney switched to the new Acuff-Rose owned Hickory Records. In 1956, they scored two minor hits with Each Season Changes You and Cheated Too, which led to their moving to Nashville and joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1957. 1959 produced the Top 5 Country hits Come Walk with Me, Big Midnight Special and There’s A Big Wheel. In 1960, they scored with the Top 20 hits Johnny My Love (Grandma’s Diary) and This Ole House, with their final chart record being the 1961 Top 10 Wreck On The
Stoney suffered a heart attack early in 1963, and from that point on, his health was never quite what it had been, although the Coopers kept on working. They had a total of three albums and numerous singles in their eight years with Hickory. They went to Decca in 1965, where an attempt to modernize their traditional sound did not come off very well. Later recordings with Skylite, Gusto and Rounder were more satisfying in spite of Stoney’s declining vigor. He finally passed away in the spring of 1977, a true gentleman of the old school.
Wilma Lee kept on going. Her band took on more of a Bluegrass sound. Although the Coopers had sometimes used a banjo earlier, Wilma nearly always had one. She completed an unfinished second album for Rounder and cut new ones for Leather and Rebel. Although she has slowed down a little in the 90’s, Wilma Lee did maintain a regular touring schedule for a dozen years on her own. Moreover, daughter Carolee with her Carol Lee Singers has for many years provided vocal backup on a regular basis for nearly all the Grand Ole Opry acts.
In 1994, Wilma Lee was presented with an Award of Merit by the IBMA.
Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper rank as one of the great husband-wife teams in Country music. Although a force for tradition in the industry, they, like Roy Acuff, Molly O’Day, Johnnie and Jack, and the Louvin Brothers, helped bridge the gap between the older and newer styles. After nearly four decades of performing, half of them at the Grand Ole Opry, Stoney’s death left Wilma to carry on the tradition.
Dogwood Tree and Walking My Lord Up Calvary Hill. Like Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys and Molly O’Day’s Cumberland Mountain Folks, the Coopers built their Clinch Mountain Clan around the acoustical instrumentation of Dobro, fiddle and mandolin. These were generally in the capable hands of musicians such as Will Carver, Burkett ("Josh") Graves, Tex Logan, Blaine Stewart, James Carson and Stoney himself.
Highway. Although chart successes, none of these had the lasting impact of their earlier standards.
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