Chickie Williams was part of the group called “Doc Williams and the Border Riders.” In fact, she was Doc’s wife and singing partner at the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree.

Chickie was born in the little town of Bethany, West Virginia in 1919, and, as a child, enjoyed listening to her father, Fred, and Uncle Cal singing and playing country music. While growing up, she loved to sing for family gatherings and at school functions. Chickie began her professional career (after her three girls were a little older) singing with her husband’s show, and she would later play back up for the group on the upright bass fiddle. Her first appearance with the Doc Williams Show was in August of 1946 at the Tyler County Fair in West Virginia, and she won the audience over with her sweet, soft voice and traditional country songs.

Doc met his future wife, Chickie, at the Reawood Dance Hall in Hickory, Pennsylvania, when Chickie wrote to him requesting a personal appearance there. It was love at first sight for Doc. They married in 1939, made their home in Wheeling, and had three daughters, Barbara, Madeline, and Karen. The girls were known over the radio and on stage as Peeper, Pooch, and Punkin, and made their debut on the Jamboree at ages, 7, 5, and 4. They also traveled with their parents’ show during school vacations.

In 1948, Chickie had a “hit” record, based on her original arrangement of the hymn “Beyond the Sunset”, with the reading “Should You Go First and I Remain.” Soon after its release on Wheeling Records, “Beyond the Sunset” was charted #3 in Billboard trade magazine’s Top 100 Country Music Songs. Hank Williams and Red Foley, among many others, immediately came out with their own recordings of Chickie’s arrangement. Chickie Williams is loved by her many fans for the purity of her vocal arrangements and her exquisite taste in choosing songs to record.

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