Leona Williams has a story that seems to fit the archetype of country music from years past -- a young girl growing up in a family of modest means, being discovered for her voice and then making the ascension to renown in the music industry.
Through it all, she has remained humble and appreciative of the life she has been able to enjoy and continues to call her native Missouri her home.
She recalled, "My mother and father lived in a home in Argyle (Missouri) and that's where I was born on Jan. 7, 1943. I think I was about 3 months old when they left there and moved to the Vienna area."
Coming up in a family of 12 children, Williams walked 1½ miles to the one-room Flat Top School. It was in this small schoolhouse that she received her education through the eighth grade. However, when it came time to graduate, there were no buses running to the high school in Vienna, so she and her siblings went to work to help their family make ends meet.
"When I was itty bitty, my dad (Vernon Helton) played the fiddle and my mother played piano at church," she said of her musical beginnings. "My brothers had fiddles and guitars and could play, and I learned to play the mandolin and was doing rhythm for my dad when I was 5 years old."
The beginnings of her professional career in music came when her brother was playing fiddle for "Johnny Music" at a dance in the small Maries County community of Brinktown. Johnny Music (John Muessig Jr.) was not only a musician, but part owner of the KWOS radio station in Jefferson City.
"At the party, my brother asked Johnny Music if I could sing one of the songs, and he really liked my performance," Williams said. "He said, 'Let's get some sponsors and have you come do a radio show on KWOS.' So my dad took me to Vienna, and we got some people to sponsor me for a weekly show we recorded on Thursday nights and was broadcast on Saturday mornings. It was called 'Leona Sings.'"
Williams was 15 years old at the time she began performing on her own radio program. A few years later, she married Ron Williams and moved to St. Louis, where she attended beautician's school. Not one to give up her interest in performing, she played with other musicians around the St. Louis area and later became acquainted with Loretta Lynn.
Her band performed several shows with Lynn and went out on the road with the up-and-coming country superstar and her "Blue Kentuckians" for about a year, often playing bass guitar. Then, Williams was given a record deal with Hickory Records and began touring, even entertaining service members during the Vietnam War.
"I wrote a song after I got back from entertaining the troops called 'Stand Up for America,' and I still perform that at my shows," Williams said. "I was with Hickory Records for about four years and then went to RCA and recorded some singles. After that, I recorded some singles with MCA."
Williams soon joined Merle Haggard's band, with whom she performed for about nine years. She and her first husband divorced, and Williams was married to Haggard for several years.
"Merle had the idea for a woman to record an album at San Quentin and used to joke that he was 'stationed' there for about three years," Williams said with a chuckle. "We did the album 'San Quentin's First Lady' in 1976, and I was backed on that album by his band, The Strangers."
She took up residence in the state of California for a few years and not only charted with her own singles, but wrote songs for other artists, including Haggard, Lynn, Connie Smith and Charley Pride. She and Haggard eventually divorced, and in 1985, she married songwriter David Kirby. In 2004, her husband died and was laid to rest in her native Vienna in the same cemetery as her parents.
"I was good friends with Ferlin Husky, who was always like a brother to me, and I thought he was just a wonderful entertainer," she said. "He was in ill health and living in Florida but came to stay with me and our family in Vienna during some of his later years, and we often brought him along to some shows with us."
Husky died in 2011 at the age of 85. The same year, Williams was honored as the "Entertainer of the Year" at the annual Reunion of Professional Entertainers awards banquet. The award recognized her continuing contributions to the classic style of country music.
In 2013, a stretch of Highway 63 in Vienna was designated the "Leona Williams Highway."
The mother of three children, Williams, now in her 80s, resides in the Branson area and continues to perform with her son, Ron, before eager audiences. These shows represent to her the continuation of a dream that began in her childhood.
"We were poor and didn't have much when I was growing up, but I told my mother that one day I was going to sing and buy her a house, and I was able to do both," she said. "My sweet little mother got to live in that home in Vienna."
Smiling, she added, "For so many years that I was on the road, I never really found a place to call home, but Missouri is where it started for me and is where I still make my home."
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of "Movin' On," biography of the band Missouri.
Courtesy/Leona Williams
Raised in the Maries County community of Vienna, Leona Williams got her first big break as a singer performing on KWOS in Jefferson City. The country music icon later toured with Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard, in addition to writing and performing her own music. Williams has also written successful songs for other artists and continues to do shows.