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All Music Guide:
Born Wilma Lee Leary, songwriter and singer Wilma Lee Cooper was raised in a well-known musical group that sang at local churches and festivals, billing themselves as the Leary Family. At one point, the Learys were even invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to perform at a national folk festival. Upon graduating from high school Wilma obtained a degree in banking at Davis and Elkins College. Near the same time she met and married guitarist Stoney Cooper. For the next 40 years the two performed as one of country music's most popular duos. Their performances, including a ten-year stint on Wheeling, WV's Jamboree and another decade performing at the Grand Ole Opry, led to recording contracts with both Columbia and Decca. Wilma, a skillful banjoist, guitarist, and organist, wrote or co-wrote several of their most successful compositions, including "Cheated Too," "Loving You," "I Tell My Heart," and "Heartbreak Street." After Stoney's death in 1977 Wilma continued to perform, once again joining the cast of the Grand Ole Opry. However, her performing days ended when she had a stroke while playing on the Grand Ole Opry stage in 2001, although she recovered sufficiently to appear at the Opry later as a non-performer and offer greetings and thank-yous to fans. Wilma Lee Cooper is featured among the Smithsonian Institute's collection of great singers.
Wikipedia:
Wilma Lee Leary (February 7, 1921 – September 13, 2011), known professionally as Wilma Lee Cooper, was an American bluegrass-based country music entertainer.
Biography
Born in Valley Head, West Virginia, Leary sang in her youth with her family's gospel music group, The Leary Family, which included her parents and sisters. They recorded for the Library Of Congress in 1938.
In 1939, Leary married fiddler and vocalist Dale T. "Stoney" Cooper, who was a musical accompanist for the Leary Family, and the duo formed their own bluegrass group, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper and the Clinch Mountain Clan. They were regulars for ten years on Wheeling, West Virginia's WWVA-AM's rival to the Grand Ole Opry, WWVA Jamboree, beginning in 1947 before joining the Opry in 1957.
Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper had remarkable record success in the late 1950s and early 1960s on Hickory Records given both their bluegrass sound (which has rarely been as commercially successful) and the damage rock-n-roll was doing to country music's popularity at the time. They scored seven hit records between 1956 and 1961, with four top ten hits on Billboard charts, notably "Big Midnight Special" and "There's a Big Wheel." They remained connected to the Leary Family tradition as well, recording popular gospel songs like "The Tramp on the Street" and "Walking My Lord Up Calvary's Hill."
Cooper died in 1977 but Wilma Lee stayed on the Opry as a solo star and on occasion recorded an album for a bluegrass record label. In 2001 she suffered a stroke while performing on the Opry stage which ended her career, but Cooper defied doctors who said she would never walk again and eventually returned to the Opry to greet and thank the crowds.
The Cooper's daughter, Carol Lee Cooper, is the lead singer for the Grand Ole Opry's backup vocal group, The Carol Lee Singers.
Wilma Lee Cooper died on September 13, 2011 at her home in Sweetwater, Tenn. from natural causes. She had been a member of the Opry since 1957 and was 90 years old. Her last solo performance on the Opry was at the Ryman Auditorium on February 24, 2001. Wilma Lee joined the Opry cast at the grand re-opening of the Opry House on September 28, 2010 for a group sing-along.
