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The husband-and-wife act was a staple feature of country music in the 1930s and 40s. When Wilma Lee Leary and Stoney Cooper, two youngsters from rural West Virginia, married and went on the road together in the early 40s, they were following a path beaten before them by the Chicago radio teams of Lulu Belle and Scotty Wiseman, and Bob Atcher and Bonnie Blue Eyes. But Wilma Lee, who has died aged 90, was of sterner musical stock, and instead of winsomeness or rustic comedy, she offered a mountain voice as hard as the coal of her native state. For almost 30 years, she and Stoney would be one of the most popular acts in traditional country music.
Born in Randolph County, West Virginia, Wilma Lee began singing as a child, in a family group with her parents and younger sisters. By 1938, the Leary Family Singers were well known enough to appear in Washington DC at the National Folk festival. With them was...