Foy Willing

Singer, songwriter, and actor Foy Willing was best known as the founder of the Riders of the Purple Sage, a popular cowboy band known for their harmonies and appearances in low-budget Westerns from the '40s and '50s. Born Foy Willingham in Bosque County, TX, he began as a soloist and member of a gospel group on local radio. In 1933 he began appearing on a radio show in New York City but left in 1935 to work as a radio announcer back in Texas. In 1940 Willing moved to California and had established a version of the Riders there (the band had actually been founded in 1936 by Buc...