Willie "Jay" Lee Webb (February 12, 1937 – July 31, 1996)[1] was an American country music singer.
Willie "Jay" Lee Webb was born in a cabin on February 12, 1937, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky.
He was the third son and fourth child born to Clara Marie "Clary" (née Ramey; May 5, 1912 – November 24, 1981) and Melvin Theodore "Ted" Webb (June 6, 1906 – February 22, 1959), a coal miner and subsistence farmer.
The family was poor, living hand-to-mouth, and relying on Ted Webb's meager income.
Ted Webb died early of black lung disease as a result of years working in the coal mines of Van Lear, Kentucky.
A year before his father's death in 1959, Webb left Kentucky and moved to Custer, Washington.
Webb was a keen guitar player and decided to write some short gospel songs with sister, Loretta.
Having a tenor voice,[citation needed] Webb discovered gospel songs were well suited to him.
On June 16, 1960, Webb was noticed by Sun Records producer and engineer Jack Clement, who was on a business trip.
He also secured a contract with Wilburn Brothers Publishing Company and played on their TV show for $30 per week.
He performed other country music singers' songs like Patsy Montana's smash hit song "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" and Kitty Wells' smash hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels".
His sister urged him to move to Nashville, and she secured him a contract with Vocalion Records in Memphis which he signed on April 19, 1961, for $50 per week.
Webb secured a 2-month contract with Decca to record four songs (and release two singles with B-sides) on August 16, 1963.
Webb recorded two songs on August 24, 1963: "Lord, Are You Ever Returnin' (Home To Me)", "Your Photo (Is Hauntin' Me)".
When his Decca contract expired on December 16, 1963, he returned to singing in nightclubs and earning a living off of his guitar & violin.
In February 1966, Webb wrote "Lay Some Happiness On Me" and sang it to his sister Loretta Lynn.
On October 12, 1966, he recorded two songs: "Ribbon of Darkness" (which sister Crystal Gayle later sung) and "Gotta Swim The Mississippi".
As 1969, he recorded two more songs, a re-record "You Never Were Mine" and "Margie's At The Lincoln Park Inn", two of which he did not write.
In 1970, he was on the road in concerts, performing in nightclubs and making semi-regular appearances on the Wilburn Brothers show.
On May 28, 1971, Owen Bradley asked him to record another song, "You Are The One" as a duet with wife Lou Anne.
While performing in Camden, Tennessee, between April 6–8 of 1971, he met his fan Lou Anne Robinson.
She gave birth to son on January 7, 1972, at Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital in Nashville.
[citation needed] Webb died on July 31, 1996,[4] at age 59 after battling pancreatic cancer for two years and four months.
He had been admitted to Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital in Nashville, where he died with his wife and children by his side.