Grand Ole Opry Star Wilma Lee Cooper Passes Away At Age 90

 

Her last solo performance for the Opry was at the Ryman Auditorium on Feb. 24, 2001, but she joined the Opry cast at the grand re-opening of the Opry House on Sept. 28, 2010 for a group sing-along. In 2001, she suffered a stroke that ceased her performances at the Opry.

 

Wilma Lee was preceded in death by husband Stoney Cooper and survived by daughter Carol Lee Cooper, Hendersonville, Tenn.; granddaughter Vanessa Brusseau and her husband Mark of Hermitage, Tenn. and granddaughter Shannon Rogers and her husband Mark of Hendersonville, Tenn.

 

With Wilma Lee’s wishes there will not be a memorial service, for she shall be remembered for her music and faith.

 

She spent her life as a singer and entertainer. Born Wilma Leigh Leary, she began working early as a member of West Virginia’s regionally-famed Leary Family. She first achieved national prominence in the 1940s as a gospel singer performing with her husband, champion fiddler Stoney (Dale T.) Cooper. She sang and played guitar. They performed story songs, from “The Legend of the Dogwood Tree,” “Little Rosewood Casket,” and “Sunny Side of the Mountain” for Rich-R-Tone and Columbia Records in the 40s to “Wreck on the Highway” and “Philadelphia Lawyer” for Hickory in the early 1960s.

 

Both Wilma Lee and Stoney were members of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. And after the passing of Stoney in March 1977, Wilma Lee performed with her group the Clinch Mountain Clan until 2001.