About Me
..Wilma Lee Leary, born on February 7th 1921 in Valley Head,West Virginia as the oldest of three sisters(Jerry Johnson, Peggy Gayle), sang with her familie's band,The (Gospel Singing) Leary Family(her two sisters, her parents and her uncle).
They also recorded for the Smithsonian Institute - today are just 3 songs left
of the original recordings - the other sides were destroyed after all these years.When her fiddle playing uncle left the band in 1938, Dale Troy "Stoney" Cooper(born October 16th 1918 in Harman, West Virginia, about 40 miles north from Wilma Lee) was named to replace him for 10$ a week.Though Roy Acuff had asked them to appear on the Opry in 1939, the Leary Family decided to stay in West Virginia and accepted an offer to start on WWVA in Wheeling.Meanwhile, though, Wilma Lee and Stoney had married in 1941(against Wilma's mother(see below)), and, to everyone's surprise,
they dropped out of music to start a family.(Against her mother: " He's a fine boy and I think the world of him, but if you two get married you'd just as well face it.
He'll eat you out of house and home.")After a short time they were known to thousand of radio listeners as
Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper.After daughter Carol Lee (often misspelled: Carolee) was born they decided to go on and give show business another try.The Coopers played on many radio stations and kept on the move:Grand Island, Nebraska(KMMJ), Indianapolis(WIBC), Chicago(WJJD), Fairmont(WMMN), Blytheville(KLCN), Asheville(WWNC) and Richmond(WRVA).During this time they perfected their style and built their repertoire.By 1943 Wilma Lee was delighting fans with her versions of Roy Acuff numbers - songs like "Low and Lonely", " Wreck on the Highway" and "Don't make me go to bed ...".and Stoney had learned to play the Dobro.Up to this point they accomplished everything without making a single record.Then in the summer of 1947 made a series of recordings(all 78s) for a small east Tennessee company called Rich-R-Tone;
done on a shoestring budget, the records were sold by mail over the Cooper's Asheville radio show.When Hank William's mentor Fred Rose heard the Coopers in 1948,
he got them a contract with Columbia - and with it ,
an easier way to get lead sheets.They had no "monster hits" with Columbia, but there work there won them a nationwide audience, and their versions of
"Sunny Side of the Mountain" and " The White Rose" became their most famous hits.From 1947-57 they were headliners at Wheeling's WWVA, 50,000 watt station, whose Wheeling Jamboree was giving the Opry
a run for its money as the leading country barn dance.
Carter's Little Liver Pills also sponsored a syndicated radio show featuring the Coopers that went to twenty other stations.
Harvard University scholars came down to study their work and pronounced them the
"most authentic mountain singing group in America".By the time they were asked to join the Grand Ole Opry, In February 1957,
they were so successful they debated whether moving "so far south" would cause them to lose their audience.But they took the chance.They needn't have worried. Within months after moving to WSM, they were touring more than ever and,
for the first time, had a series of chart-making hits on a new label, Hickory.First "Come Walk with Me", then " Big Midnight Special" and then "There's a Big Wheel" (a Don Gibson Song originally written for Wheeling)
cracked the Top Ten and it looked for a long time as if the Coopers were going to be big recording stars.However a problem interfered.
Chet Atkins had done electric guitar work on many of the Hickory sides, and later Decca sides were even more mainstream country in style.Yet when Wilma Lee tried to do modern country songs, her fans objected. It was a case of Catch-22.
So the Coopers settled in to become Opry regulars and contented themselves with the routine of regular, well-received albums- not block-busters- radio work, and successful tours.In the 70's Stoney began having respiratory problems, and they let up on the tours a little.They had just completed a comeback album for the Rounder Label when Stoney's illness caught up with him and
he died, after one month in the intensive care, from a heart attack, on March 22nd, 1977.Wilma Lee decided to carry on with an reorganized the band.
(and she had to pay the $95.000 bill for the hospital!)She has kept the Cooper Sound alive, both on the Opry and on records.
She worked often with Carol Lee, leader of the Opry's foremost back-up vocal group, the Carol Lee Singers.Her daughter Carol Lee Cooper married Jimmie Snow, son of Hank Snow and was then Carol Lee Snow.
They also recorded 3 LPs together, which didn't become a success.Wilma Lee has been honored by the Smithsonian Institution for her contributions for country music.
She appeared on the Opry till 2001, when she suffered a stroke which ended her performing career.She has been on the Opry again and greeted the crowd and thanked her fans.Unfortunately she's bed ridden now, too weak to answer the thousands of letters/cards etc. of her fan mail - but she appreciates everyone who thinks of her!She's living in Nashville, Tennessee and you can write her thru the Opry.
