Onie Wheeler

MyGen Profile Generator Born in Senath, MO, in 1921, Onie Wheeler recorded traditional country, bluegrass, and rockabilly music in a career that stretched from a small radio show in Missouri all the way to the Grand Ole Opry. He played guitar and harmonica as a child, but never performed professionally until after service in World War II.Beginning in 1945, he worked radio broadcasts in Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, and Kentucky. Wheeler formed the Lonesome Ozark Cowboys five years later with Ernest Thompson and brothers A.J. and Doyal Nelson. The Cowboys played clubs in Texas in 1952, and were encouraged to travel to Nashville by Little Jimmy Dickens.After reaching Music City, Onie Wheeler and the Cowboys found a deal with Columbia. Lefty Frizzell reached the Country Top Ten in 1954 with Wheeler's Run 'Em Off. By the mid'50s, his repertoire began to lean toward rockabilly.Bob Neal booked Onie Wheeler and a new young singer, Elvis Presley. Onie and Elvis did different types of material and their acts complimented each other. They worked together frequently for five years. "I knew from the very start that Elvis was absolutely the most talented and different entertainer I had ever seen. And I think I was one of the first to tell him so.” He signed to Sun Records in 1957, and toured with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.He spent some of the late '50s in California, but returned to Nashville to record for Epic, Starday, United Artists, and Musicor during the '60s. Onie made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry in 1949. Became a member of The Flatt & Scruggs TV show. Onie also began to do session work in the studio where his harp playing has been heard behind recordings of such artists as Sonny James and Dolly Parton, and later he became a member of the Roy Acuff Smokey Mountain Boys as harmonica player.Onie Wheeler was with the Roy Acuff show for twenty-two years. He toured with George Jones and Roy Acuff and finally hit the charts himself with John's Been Shucking My Corn in 1973. He even watched his daughter Karen place three singles on the charts during the mid'70s. Billboard's obituary called Onie "one of the pioneers of rockabilly" yet his heart was in country and some of his greatest recordings were his early country tunes.He was playing at the Opry with Rev. Jimmie Snow in May 1984 singing one of his own songs when he collapsed, microphone in hand, and died on stage.