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64 YEARS OF WMUR-TV: CLYDE & WILLIE MAY JOY

In the 1950s and 1960s, one of WMUR-TV’s greatest success stories were Clyde and Willie Mae Joy, the “King and Queen of Country” in New England, whose weekly show was one of the most regularly watched programs in those early days.

Clyde was a country and western singer who got his start during the depression, playing for two dollars a day in a Manchester, NH clamshack. During World War II while serving in the military he would meet and marry Willie Mae Gibbons who was great on an upright bass. After returning to New Hampshire after the war, he would catch the ear of Francis P. Murphy, and was invited to make several appearances on WMUR radio and later WMUR-TV. First appearing on WMUR-TV’s “The Country Store Show” with Gus Bernier they later had their own show, “Joy In the Morning”.

Becoming household names in a span of 10 years, they would share the stage with Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Jr and in 1966, at the height of their fame opened the Circle 9 Ranch in Epsom, New Hampshire. There they hosted a Saturday night barn dance that would be pure Americana, with a $3 entry and BYOB, rural folks would pile around wooden picnic tables and Clyde would bring down the house with his ten-gallon hat and string tie.

In 1967 a tornado destroyed the Circle 9 Ranch. Although they rebuilt, a string of personal tragedies and the shifting popularity of country music in New England would diminish their star power. Clyde would continue to play town and local festivals through the remainder of his life, passing away in January 2009. A key figure in the early years of WMUR-TV and a legend of New Hampshire.