‘Where it began’ - Country music icon Leona Williams got her start on Mid-Missouri radio broadcast11/30/2024  Raised in the Maries County community of Vienna, Leona Williams got her first big break as a singer performing on KWOS in Jefferson City. The country music icon later toured with Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard, in addition to writing and performing her own music. Williams has also written successful songs for other artists and continues to do shows. Courtesy of Leona Williams By Jeremy P. Ämick Leona Williams has a story that seems to fit the archetype of country music from years past—a young girl growing up in a family of modest means, being discovered for her voice and then making the ascension to renown in the music industry. Through it all, she has remained humble and appreciative of the life she has been able to enjoy and continues to call her native Missouri her home. She recalled, “My mother and father lived in a home in Argyle (Missouri) and that’s where I was born on January 7, 1943. I think I was about three months old when they left there and moved to the Vienna area,” Williams added. Coming up in a family of 12 children, Williams walked 1.5 miles to the one-room Flat Top School. It was in this small schoolhouse that she received her education through the eighth grade. However, when it came time to graduate, there were no buses running to high school in Vienna, so she and her siblings went to work to help their family make ends meet. “When I was itty bitty, my dad (Vernon Helton) played the fiddle and my mother played piano at church,” she explained of her musical beginnings. “My brothers had fiddles and guitars and could play, and I learned to play the mandolin and was doing rhythm for my dad when I was five years old.” The beginnings of her professional career in music came when her brother was playing fiddle for “Johnny Music” at a dance in the small Maries County community of Brinktown. Johnny Music (John Muessig Jr.) was not only a musician but part owner of the KWOS radio station in Jefferson City. “At the party, my brother asked Johnny Music if I could sing one of the songs and he really liked my performance,” Williams shared. “He said let’s get some sponsors and have you come do a radio show on KWOS. So, my dad took me to Vienna, and we got some people to sponsor me for a weekly show we recorded on Thursday nights and was broadcast on Saturday mornings. It was called ‘Leona Sings.’” Williams was 15 years old at the time she began performing on her own radio program. A few years later, she married Ron Williams and moved to St. Louis, where she attended a beautician’s school. Not one to give up her interest in performing, she played with other musicians around the St. Louis area and later became acquainted with Loretta Lynn. Her band performed several shows with Loretta Lynn and went out on the road with the up-and-coming country superstar and her “Blue Kentuckians” for about a year, often playing bass guitar. Then, Williams was given a record deal with Hickory Records and began touring, even entertaining servicemembers during the Vietnam War. She explained, “I wrote a song after I got back from entertaining the troops called ‘Stand Up for America,’ and I still perform that at my shows. I was with Hickory Records for about four years and then went to RCA and recorded some singles. After that, I recorded some singles with MCA.” Williams soon joined Merle Haggard’s band, with whom she performed for about nine years. She and her first husband divorced, and Williams was married to Haggard for several years. “Merle had the idea for a woman to record an album at San Quentin and used to joke that he was ‘stationed’ there for about three years,” Williams chuckled. “We did the album ‘San Quentin’s First Lady’ in 1976 and I was backed on that album by his band, The Strangers.” She took up residence in the state of California for a few years and not only charted with her own singles, but wrote songs for other artists including Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Connie Smith, and Charley Pride. She and Haggard were divorced and in 1985, she married songwriter David Kirby. In 2004, her husband passed away and was laid to rest in her native Vienna in the same cemetery as her parents. “I was good friends with Ferlin Husky, who was always like a brother to me, and I thought he was just a wonderful entertainer,” she said. “He was in ill health and living in Florida but came to stay with me and our family in Vienna during some of his later years and we often brought him along to some shows with us.” Ferlin Husky passed away in 2011 at 85 years of age. The same year, Williams was honored as the “Entertainer of the Year” at the annual Reunion of Professional Entertainers awards banquet. The award recognized her continuing contributions to the classic style of country music. In 2013, a stretch of Highway 63 in Vienna was designated the “Leona Williams Highway.” The mother of three children, Williams, now in her eighties, resides in the Branson area and continues to perform with her son, Ron, before eager audiences. These shows represent to her the continuation of a dream that began in her childhood. “We were poor and didn’t have much when I was growing up, but I told my mother that one day I was going to sing and buy her a house, and I was able to do both,” she said. “My sweet little mother got to live in that home in Vienna.” Smiling, she added, “For so many years that I was on the road, I never really found a place to call home, but Missouri is where it started for me and is where I still make my home.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of “Movin’ On,” biography of the band Missouri.  Merle Haggard suggested that Williams be the first woman to record a live album at San Quentin. For several years, Haggard and Williams were married and lived in California. Courtesy of Leona Williams
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 Born and raised in the Cole County community of Millbrook, Edna Scheperle was engaged to marry Walter Fischer. After her fiancée died in a military training camp during World War I, she attended nursing school in St. Louis and dedicated her life to the nursing profession. Courtesy of Marsha Propst By Jeremy P. Ämick Edna Scheperle came of age in the agricultural community of Millbrook south of Lohman, where, as a young adult, she became engaged to Walter J. Fischer. With the promise of marriage and a happy future together, these plans were suspended when Fischer was called into military service in World War I. Her fiancée did not survive the war and that is when she resolved to embark upon a life of service as a nurse to honor the memory of her beloved. Born on September 12, 1893, Edna’s father was John Scheperle Sr., a native of Germany who was the co-owner of Centennial Mill in Millbrook and, talented in the construction trades, became the builder of the Lutheran churches in Stringtown and Honey Creek. The youngest of nine children, Edna attended public and parochial schools in the Lohman and Stringtown area. “Walter Fischer … and Miss Edna Scheperle, of Millbrook, visited with Mr. and Mrs. A.F. Heidbreder of Clarksburg Sunday,” reported The Central Missourian of the early stages of the couple’s association on September 1, 1916. Having grown up on a farm near the Zion community south of Jefferson City, Walter Fischer continued working on his father’s farm into adulthood. Additionally, he chose to explore business interests while his relationship continued to develop with Edna Scheperle. “Another early mercantile business ‘Kautsch and Linhardt’ had in the late 1880s established a store on the present site of the Farmers Bank of Lohman,” noted a 1976 booklet describing Lohman history. “Around 1908-1909, they moved across the street and constructed the fine building on the west side of Main St.” The booklet continued, “In 1911, this firm sold out to A.N. Linhardt…. Mr. Linhardt operated the store with Walter Fischer between 1912 and 1917…” It was on June 5, 1917, that the 25-year-old Fischer complied with the mandate to register for the military draft. On September 20, 1917, he said goodbyes to his family and to his fiancée, Edna, when he was inducted into the U.S. Army in Jefferson City and boarded a train bound for Camp Funston, Kansas. After completing several weeks of initial military training, Fischer was assigned to the Sanitary Detachment of the 365th Infantry. Despite all his training and preparations to deploy in support of the war being fought in Europe, Fischer’s service soon came to an unexpected end. “Walter Fischer, a Cole County soldier at Camp Funston, died last night after a lingering illness of spinal meningitis,” the Jefferson City Post-Tribune shared on May 16, 1918. “His parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Fischer, were at his bedside when he died.” The newspaper went on to note that his training experience at the Kansas military post marked the first time Fischer had been away from home for an extended period. The soldier’s remains were brought back to Mid-Missouri and interred in the cemetery of Zion Lutheran Church, where Fischer and his family were members. Local members of the American Red Cross performed a patriotic service in conjunction with the funeral service while members of the Home Guard provided a firing squad as part of the military honors. “It was estimated that 1,000 people attended the funeral of Walter Fischer…,” the Jefferson City Post-Tribune printed on May 20, 1918. “One hundred and fifty automobiles were parked around the little cemetery where the body was laid to rest.” It was a traumatic period for Edna Scheperle, mourning the tragic loss of the man to whom she had been engaged to marry. Not long after his death, Scheperle enrolled at the Lutheran Hospital School for Nurses in St. Louis, graduating from the program in June 1923. Susan Scheperle Schenewerk, a great niece of Edna Scheperle, explained, “She was an absolute gem of a person and when she lost Walter, that was the time she decided to go to nursing school and dedicate her life to helping others. My mother always said that losing him broke her heart and she never married.” Making her home in the St. Louis area, Scheperle worked more than 50 years in nursing. She made frequent trips back to the Lohman area, oftentimes providing care for relatives suffering from illnesses. Her caring spirit and service as a nurse inspired others, including two nieces, two great-nieces and a great-great-niece, who also graduated from the Lutheran Hospital School for Nurses. A charter member of St. Louis Lutheran Business Women and an active member of the Messiah Lutheran Church in St. Louis, the 92-year-old Scheperle passed away on December 9, 1985. She was laid to rest in the cemetery of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Stringtown. Family and friends still share the story of the death of her fiancée, Walter, and the inspirational and unselfish life that she went on to live as a means to honor him. “Her influence and wisdom endears her to her nieces, nephews, and all who know her,” wrote Palmer Scheperle shortly before Edna Scheperle’s passing. “Her love of a high standard of conduct and sincere belief in unselfish service affects everyone privileged to be associate with her.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the historical compilation “Moments on the Moreau.”  Walter Fischer was raised on a farm near the Zion community south of Jefferson City. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1917 and was 26 years old when he died from spinal meningitis in a training camp. Courtesy of Susan Scheperle Schenewerk ‘Keeps me inspired’ - Ivan Doroschuk discusses the band Men Without Hats, writing new music11/14/2024  Ivan Doroschuk, foreground, wearing a black leather jacket, was born in Illinois but raised in Montreal, Canada. In 1977, he was a founding member and lead singer of Men Without Hats, a band that helped define the New Wave movement. They experienced much success with their songs “Safety Dance” and “Pop Goes the World” and continue to create new music and tour. Courtesy of Men Without Hats Raised in a household that lived and breathed classical music, Ivan Doroschuk spent years learning to play the piano. But with the bands like The Beatles paving the way for the development of new genres, such as punk rock, he later found himself as part of the movement that helped create and define New Wave and synth pop music. Embracing an interest in keyboards and synthesizers, his band, Men Without Hats enjoyed two massive hits, thus inspiring the band to continue to make new music decades after its inception. Doroschuk was born in 1957 in Champaign, Illinois, the oldest of three brothers. His father was at the time pursuing his master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Illinois. In 1960, after having finished his education, his father moved their family to Canada after being hired as faculty at the University of Montreal. “My mother was a voice teacher at McGill University for many years and my brothers and I were all classically trained in music while growing up,” Doroschuk said. “My brother Colin and I learned piano while my other younger brother, Stefan, played violin.” He continued, “My parents were very supportive with respect to new music and told me that as long as I spent time playing piano, they weren’t really concerned with what kind of music I listened to. So, I started writing songs in high school and learning to play songs by The Beatles and other groups,” he added. Doroschuk explained that the structure of his songwriting reflected much of the style of The Beatles, and that he and many of his friends wore Beatles hats and began to grow their hair out. Montreal, he further explained, was also becoming a hotbed for progressive music and was quite supportive of bands in the styles of Genesis and Yes. His musical interests were further flavored by punk rock bands like the Sex Pistols, who demonstrated a do-it-yourself attitude and independent streak in a music environment often defined by commercialism. “The late 1970s and into the early 1980s were truly exciting times because there was so much creativity across the full spectrum of art,” he explained. “New technologies like synthesizers were becoming more affordable and music videos were later being shown on MTV.” Trending toward performing music relying heavily on keyboards, Doroschuk formed the band Wave 21 in high school. Embracing a punk mentality, the group was of a progressive mold with their lead singer quoting self-written poetry above the music of the band. During this time, Doroschuk’s younger brothers were also exploring music by playing in cover bands. After graduating from high school in 1976, Doroschuk moved to France when being accepted into law school at the University of Nice. The following year, he returned to Montreal and enrolled in a film and communications program at McGill University. While in college, he joined his brothers, Colin and Stefan, in addition to Allan McCarthy, in forming Men Without Hats. Chuckling, he explained, “I came up with the name Men Without Hats when the band formed in 1977. Montreal has real cold weather, but we had the theory that real men don’t wear hats in such weather.” Doroschuk added, “I was working full-time in the emergency department at Montreal General Hospital to help pay for college, going to classes and playing music in Men Without Hats. Things really started taking off for the band and I had to drop out of school and then quit my job to focus solely on the music.” Men With Hats released their debut EP “Folk of the 80s” in 1980 and it included the single “Safety Dance,” which started receiving some action on the music charts. They were signed by Backstreet Records and the label encouraged them to make a 12-inch remix of “Safety Dance” that was featured on their second album, “Rhythm of Youth.” When it rose to the top of the Billboard music charts, they “were yanked out of the studio and put on a tour bus,” he recalled. Doroschuk said, “We made a video of ‘Safety Dance’ for MTV, and it became a big factor in the song’s popularity.” Several years later, in 1987, Men Without Hats released their third studio album, “Pop Goes The World.” The album featured a song of the same title that skyrocketed in the music charts in several countries. Men Without Hats released several additional albums throughout the years with a different composite of musicians in addition to a solo album by Doroschuk in 1996. Men Without Hats is currently on tour in support of two albums they have released in the last couple of years and is preparing for the release of more new music later this summer. Since leaving college and quitting his job at the Montreal General Hospital more than 40 years ago, Doroschuk has focused his vision and efforts on Men Without Hats while also writing and performing new music. It is a passion, he affirmed, that is fueled by the reception he receives from his audiences. “Songs like ‘Safety Dance’ have a message—live your life and don’t worry about what other people think about you … and that’s something that still resonates with people today.” He continued, “What keeps me inspired is seeing the audiences with smiles on their faces and those individuals who really enjoy the music. That’s why I’ve always continued to do what I do by performing our classics and continuing to create new music.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the biographies of the rock bands Missouri and Shooting Star.  Doroschuk is pictured with Men Without Hats during the 1980s. As a child, he received a classical music education from his mother and learned to play piano. Courtesy of Men Without Hats |
AuthorJeremy P. Ämick is an award-winning author and historian dedicated to preserving music, military and local histories. Archives
July 2026
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