Wiley Walker
Musician · 1911–1966 · Laurel Hill, Florida
Best known for
Songwriter
Wiley Walker was a Florida-born country songwriter, singer, fiddler, and buck-dancer who, with his partner Gene Sullivan, became one of the better-known harmony-duo acts in the Southwest during the 1940s. The duo’s “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again” is their most enduring contribution — a country standard later revived to mass-market success by Elvis Presley.
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- Born November 17, 1911, in Laurel Hill, Florida; learned fiddle and buck-and-wing dance as a child and joined touring tent shows in 1925.
- Worked with Lew Childre as half of the Alabama Boys in New Orleans and Birmingham in the early 1930s.
- Played briefly with the Swift Jewel Cowboys in 1937 before relocating to Shreveport, Louisiana.
- Met Gene Sullivan while both were working with the Shelton Brothers; the pair formed Wiley & Gene in 1939.
- Co-wrote “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again” with Sullivan; they cut it for Columbia in 1941, and Elvis Presley’s 1956 RCA version pushed it onto the pop charts.
- The duo’s only Billboard chart entry was 1946’s “Make Room in Your Heart for a Friend,” which reached No. 2 country.
- Became regulars on Oklahoma City television in the late 1940s; the duo’s career wound down in the early 1950s.
- Died May 17, 1966.
