Doyle Wilburn
Musician · 1930–1982 · Hardy, Arkansas
Best known for
Songwriter
Doyle Wilburn was the older half of the Wilburn Brothers, the Arkansas-born country duo who held the only “Lifetime Recording Contract” Decca Records ever issued, hosted a nationally syndicated television show for eleven years, and launched Loretta Lynn through their Sure-Fire Music publishing house. He spent his entire adult career working in close harmony with younger brother Teddy.
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- Born July 7, 1930, in Hardy, Arkansas, the second-youngest of the Wilburn children.
- Made his stage debut on a Thayer, Missouri street corner on December 24, 1937, performing with his four siblings on instruments their father had ordered from the Sears Roebuck catalogue.
- Joined his siblings in the Wilburn Children act, which Roy Acuff carried to the Grand Ole Opry in 1940; federal child-labor rules ended the Opry run after six months.
- Worked the Louisiana Hayride out of Shreveport from 1948 to 1951; served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
- Reformed the duo with brother Teddy in 1953, touring with Faron Young and Webb Pierce; signed to Decca in May 1954 and made the country chart later that year backing Webb Pierce on “Sparkling Brown Eyes.”
- The Wilburn Brothers Show ran in syndication from 1964 to 1974; the brothers used the platform and their Sure-Fire Music publishing company to launch Loretta Lynn’s career and to develop Patty Loveless and the Osborne Brothers.
- Decca awarded the Wilburn Brothers a lifetime recording contract — the only such deal the label ever issued.
- Died of lung cancer on October 16, 1982.