Molly O'Day (July 9, 1923 – December 5, 1987)
was an American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
vocalist. O'Day was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
Early life
Lois LaVerne Williamson
was born on a farm in
Pike County, Kentucky
Pike County is a county in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 58,669. Its county seat is Pikeville. The county was founded in 1821. With regard to the sale of alcohol, it is classified as a moist county–†...
, United States,
to Joseph and Hester Williamson. Her father supported the family as a coalminer. Neither of her parents played music but Lois got together with her two brothers, Cecil and Joe, to practice singing and playing. Lois and her two brothers, who called themselves Skeets and Duke, began performing at local dances.
In 1939, Skeets was hired to perform in a radio band: Ervin Staggs and His Radio Ramblers at
WCHS,
Charleston, West Virginia. One of the more famous members of the group was Johnnie Bailes. That same year Molly also joined the Radio Ramblers as a vocalist under the pseudonym Mountain Fern.
She worked with a banjoist called Murphy McClees and changed her name to Dixie Lee Williamson.
Within a couple of months, she and her two brothers quit and moved to
Williamson, West Virginia
Williamson is a city in Mingo County, West Virginia, United States, situated along the Tug Fork River. The population was 3,191 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Mingo County, and is the county's largest and most populous city. Willi ...
, to perform at a local radio station. In 1940, Lois and her two brothers moved to
Beckley, West Virginia, to join the Happy Valley Boys, led by Johnnie Bailes. The band did not make much money and it disintegrated in the fall of 1940.
Professional career
In 1940,
Lois applied for the position as a vocalist in the band Lynn Davis and His Forty-Niners,
who had performed on WHIS in
Bluefield, West Virginia
Bluefield is a city in Mercer County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 9,658 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Bluefield WV- VA micropolitan area, which had a population of 106,363 in 2020.
Geography
Bluefie ...
for the past four years. A few months later, on April 5, 1941, Lynn Davis and Lois Williamson were married.
The Forty-Niners appeared on several locations in the southeast and during one gig in
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
,
Hank Williams performed with the group.
In 1941, Lois changed her name to Molly O'Day,
as there was already a singer named
Dixie Lee
Dixie Lee (born Wilma Winifred Wyatt; November 4, 1909 – November 1, 1952) was an American actress, dancer, and singer. She was the first wife of singer Bing Crosby.
Biography
She was born Wilma Winifred Wyatt in Harriman, Tennessee, on N ...
. In 1945, Davis decided to change the band's name to the Cumberland Mountain Folks.
The new band became a hot act. In 1946, the head of
Acuff-Rose
Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. was an American music publishing firm formed in 1942 by Roy Acuff and Fred Rose in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Acuff-Rose's honest behavior towards their writers set them apart from other music publishing firms ...
,
Fred Rose heard Molly sing "Tramp on the Street", a Grady Cole song she learned from Williams.
Rose arranged a recording contract with
Columbia Records.
Molly O'Day and The Cumberland Mountain Folks made their first recordings on December 16, 1946. On these first recordings,
Mac Wiseman
Malcolm Bell Wiseman (May 23, 1925 – February 24, 2019) was an American bluegrass and country singer.
Early life
He was born on May 23, 1925, in Crimora, Virginia. He attended school in New Hope, Virginia, and graduated from high school the ...
appeared on bass.
During her first years as a recording artist, Molly O'Day's popularity increased, but she started to have doubts about her life's choice.
By 1951, she had made her last recording session for Columbia Records.
Later years
Although O'Day recorded albums for Bob Mooney's Rem label (later reissued on
Starday) and GRS Records in the 1960s, she preferred to sing in churches and do evangelistic work.
Both the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
and
Ralph Stanley
Ralph Edmund Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016) was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. Stanley began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of ...
tried without success to get her back onstage. In February 1974, Molly and Lynn started a program on a Christian radio station in
Huntington, West Virginia, featuring gospel recordings.
Death
In the 1980s, her health began to deteriorate after she was diagnosed with cancer. She died on December 5, 1987, aged 64,
at the
Cabell Huntington Hospital
Cabell Huntington Hospital is a regional, 303-bed academic medical center located in Huntington, West Virginia. Cabell Huntington cares for patients from more than 29 counties in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southern Ohio. It is one of th ...
in Huntington, West Virginia. She was survived by her husband Lynn Davis.
References
Sources
* Ivan M.Tribe, Liner Notes, Booklet,
Bear Family Records
Bear Family Records is a Germany-based independent record label, that specializes in reissues of archival material, ranging from country music to 1950s rock and roll to old German movie soundtracks.
History
The label has been in existence since ...
.
External links
''New York Times'' obituary''Los Angeles Times'' obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oday, Molly (singer)
1923 births
1987 deaths
Deaths from cancer in West Virginia
Country musicians from Kentucky
American banjoists
American country singer-songwriters
American women country singers
American gospel singers
People from Pike County, Kentucky
Musicians from Appalachia
20th-century American singers
Singer-songwriters from Kentucky
20th-century American guitarists
Guitarists from Kentucky
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American women guitarists