Dale Troy “Stoney” Cooper and his wife Wilma Lee were one of the premier husband-and-wife duos in country music. They were on the Grand Ole Opry for twenty years, and performed together for close to four decades.

They began their career singing at various radio stations around the country, ending up on the Wheeling Jamboree and staying there for the next 10 years as one of the show’s most enduringly popular acts.  I was with them when I was a featured artist on the Jamboree from 1953 to 1957.

Stoney had a great sense of humor and enjoyed playing pranks on his fellow-entertainers, but he was a good sport when the prank was on him.  He was just a lot of fun to be around.

Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper recorded for the Columbia Records people for five years, beginning in 1949.  Their band, The Clinch Mountain Clan, featured dobro (Buck Graves played with them in Wheeling) and mandolin with Stoney playing the fiddle and Wilma Lee playing the guitar.  Their most popular songs for Columbia were “Sunny Side of the Mountain” and “Walking My Lord Up Calvary Hill.”

They moved over to Hickory Records (Fred Rose’s label) in 1955.  Two years later, they joined the Grand Ole Opry.  In 1959, the Coopers scored with three Top Five hits, “Come Walk With Me,” “Big Midnight Special,” and “There’s a Big Wheel.”  They had two Top 20 hits in 1960 and one in 1961.

Stoney suffered a heart attack in 1963 and died in 1977.

Dusty Owens
TCM Radio News