Died On This Date (May 6, 2009) Viola Wills / Disco Diva
themusicsover Viola Wills (Born Viola Wilkerson)
December 30, 1939 – May 6, 2009
Viola Wills was already a mother of six when she was discovered by Barry White in 1965. In her early career, Wills mostly worked as a back up singer for White as well as Joe Cocker and Smokey Robinson. In 1979, Wills began a streak of disco hits that included “Dare To Dream,” “Gonna Get Along Without You Now,” and “Stormy Weather.” Her chart success lead to her being dubbed “Disco Diva,” and that was during a time when “diva” wasn’t thrown around as much as it is these days. For disco, she was a bit of an anomaly in that she wrote many of her own songs. Wills passed away after a long illness on May 6, 2009. She was 69.
What You Should Own
Rocky Benton was a favorite in and around the Corpus Christi blues scene for many years thanks in part to his outstanding harmonica playing. Blind since childhood, Benton gravitated toward music early, first learning to play the harmonica at age six and later, keyboards and drums. By ten, he was singing and drumming in a jazz band while attending the Texas School For The Blind in Austin. By the early ’90s, Benton was living in Corpus Christi where he became a fixture in the city’s music scene, sharing the bill with the likes of 
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Willie Pooch was a popular Columbus, Ohio area blues singer who began his career in gospel groups while still just a child in and around Tupelo, Mississippi. During his teens, he and his family moved to Chicago where Pooch fell under the tutelage of 