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Uncle John Wills John Tomkins Wills was born in Grovesburg, Texas in 1880. John married Emma Lee Foley on February 18, 1904, who also came from a fiddling family. They had 10 children, 4 sons Jim Rob (Bob), Johnnie Lee, Luther J. (Luke) and Billy Jack, and 6 daughters, Ruby, Eloise, Olga, Helen, Lorene, and Jesse Wayne. "Uncle John", as he was called, was a championship fiddler, often competing against the skilled fiddler Eck Robertson from Amarillo. Uncle John actually developed the hollers that Bob later perfected. John was a Texas rancher and struggling cotton farmer who taught his sons to play the fiddle. John would often play the tune "Faded Love" at their "house between the rivers" near Turkey, Texas. The song is a variation of the fiddle tune "Darling Nellie Gray." Billy Jack Wills later added words. It is now the State of Oklahoma official Country and Western Song. After leaving their farm in West Texas, John moved to Plainview, Texas, and later to a farm in Aledo, Texas, near Fort Worth. The farm was owned by W. Lee O’Daniel, Bob’s boss at Light Crust Flour. This resulted in more problems for Bob Wills with O’Daniel, as O’Daniel would hold this over Bob’s head and use this to threaten Bob. Uncle John would later move near Muleshoe, Texas where he again raised cotton and put together another band.
He later moved to Tulsa in 1934 (following Bob's successful arrival in Tulsa in the same year), where he formed another group, Uncle John Wills and His Lone Star Rangers. He resided in Tulsa until his death on December 28, 1952 of a heart attack. He is buried at Memorial Park in Tulsa, in the Will’s family plot. He is
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