At the home of country guitarist Bill Davis, “There was always music, there was always laughter,” his son said.
Whenever Bill Davis’ family got together, a hootenany broke out. Relatives fetched their fiddles, bass and spoons and commenced singing. After picking out one of his nine guitars, he’d join in.
“Bill was a very good guitar player,” said his brother Bob, the last surviving Davis sibling.
Mr. Davis grew up in one of Kentucky’s best known country music families. After migrating to Chicago during the Great Depression, he and his relatives helped popularize mountain tunes, with some of them performing on WJJD’s famed Suppertime Frolic radio program, said music historian Bob Marovich.
Bill Davis (center, maroon shirt) with his family.| Provided photo
“They came up with a brand of music that really gave comfort to a lot of people” who were unsettled by the Depression, said Pat Davis, the guitarist’s son.
Suppertime Frolic could be heard from Canada to the Carolinas, from Appalachian hollers to pre-Rust Belt cities that were still well-oiled.
Mr. Davis, who became a Chicago factory manager and partner, died of heart failure Nov. 26 at Lutheran General Hospital. He was 96.
On the day he was born in Mount Vernon, Kentucky, there was no doctor in attendance. A veterinarian helped with the birth, said his daughter Kathleen Miller. When he approached his teens, the Davis family moved north to Chicago, where he attended Lane Tech High school.
In the 1930s, Bill Davis performed with his brothers Bob and Jack in a group they called the Kentucky Boys. They accompanied their little sister, Shelby Jean Davis, on personal appearances throughout the Midwest.
