Famous bluegrass singer Wilma Lee Cooper makes home in East Tennessee

From the hills of West Virginia, traditional mountain music flowed through the veins of Wilma Lee Cooper. Born into the Leary family, a famous bluegrass gospel music group, Wilma Lee learned to play guitar with her fingers instead of a pick.

She also learned to sing loud, with a punch.

Wilma traveled the country with her husband Stoney Cooper. They met after he joined her family's group as fiddler. 

The two eventually went out on their own, forming the band "Clinch Mountain Clan." They performed live on radio shows around the country, singing jubilee tunes like "There's a Big Wheel."

Stoney died in 1977, but Wilma Lee kept on performing. She appeared regularly on the Grand Ole Opry at a time when few women did. The Smithsonian Institution even honored her as the "First Lady of Bluegrass."

"A senator friend of hers in Iowa told me once, he said, 'I've known Wilma Lee for 40 to 50 years,' he said, 'she has never lived by the rules,'" Margaret Akins said.  

Today, Margaret is Wilma Lee's caretaker. At age 80, Wilma had a stroke on stage. She could barely walk, and her voice and speech were affected.

"A man who played for her met me and learned of the care I had given a teacher of mine," Margaret said. "He decided we would be good companions. I said, 'don't even think about it.'"

But after visiting Wilma in Nashville, Margaret decided to bring her back home with her to Sweetwater just for the weekend.

"I said we'll gather up some things you need, come home with me, and come Monday morning, we'll work it out from there," Margaret said. "We're still looking for Monday morning, and that was seven years ago."

Margaret and Wilma are best friends now. Margaret even escorted Wilma on stage at the Ryman Auditorium as the country music group "The Whites" sang her a tribute.

Doctors said Wilma Lee wouldn't survive her stoke, but today she is 88.

"We have had people say: 'Where is she? what happened to her?' She's right here in the middle of them," Margaret says. "Sometimes they're surprised but as soon as they see her face and her smile, that's when they remember that it is for sure her, they recognize her."