Jessie Wanda Williams (née Crupe), known under the stage name Chickie Williams, (February 13, 1919 – November 18, 2007) was an American country musician from

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

who is best known for performing on the Wheeling Jamboree radio program on

WVVA WVVA (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Bluefield, West Virginia, United States, serving the Bluefield– Beckley– Oak Hill market as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on U ...

with her husband Doc Williams and their band the Border Riders. In 1948, Williams' original arrangement of the hymn "Beyond the Sunset," was charted #3 in Billboard trade magazine's Top 100 Country Music Songs.

Early life and family

Jessie Wanda Crupe was born in

Bethany, West Virginia Bethany is a town in southern Brooke County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 756 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville metropolitan area. It is best known as the home of Bethany College, a private liberal ...

, in 1919. She married Doc Williams on October 9, 1939, in

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...

, and they relocated to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. The next year they moved to

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

, to raise their family when Williams became pregnant with their first child. Wheeling remained her home for the rest of her life. The couple had three daughters, Barbara, Madeline, and Karen, who were known on the air as "Peeper", "Pooch", and "Punkin".

Death and honors

Williams died in November 2007. In 2008 the state of West Virginia named a section of a road in Wheeling to be called "the "Doc and Chickie Williams Highway; Country Music Royal Couple."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Chickie Musicians from Wheeling, West Virginia Country musicians from West Virginia American women country singers American country singer-songwriters People from Bethany, West Virginia Singer-songwriters from West Virginia