Will Jack "The Singing River Boy" Turner was born June 10, 1921 in Haleyvil… Read Full Bio ↴Will Jack "The Singing River Boy" Turner was born June 10, 1921 in Haleyville, Alabama to I.C. Railroad conductor S.W. Turner, and his wife. When he was 6 he would make his first performance at a Winston county wide gathering, winning a blue ribbon. A year later at age 7 his mother would gift him his first ukulele, further cementing his interest in music. A few years later he would get his first guitar, a $8.00 special, in order to back up the fiddle players at local dances. After graduating High School he would find a career in another interest of his- drawing and painting, enrolled at an advertising art school in Nashville, Tennessee. Here he would also be able to attend a Grand Ole Opry show. In 1942 he would meet his future wife Lorene Davidson, then soon enrolled in the US Navy as a Yeoman during WWII. During his service he would found a country band to entertain the troops, while also keeping up his artistic passion. After being discharge, he moved his family which included two daughters by then back to Alabama and settled in Montgomery. He got a job as an artist-illustrator at the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, while also finding work with his musical abilities, and selling vacuum cleaners part-time. Turner would later find work with WCOV-TV, and local radio stations, leading to him being discovered by the late Hank Williams mother, who would recommend him to executives in Nashville. Turner would have a recording contract with RCA-Victor in 1954, which lasted a year. His music career was limited to the 1950's, and in the following decades he would focus more on his art. Turned died December 29, 1993 and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Montgomery. His nephew Raymond Harris would later remark "I miss listening to him pick his guitar and sing. He was a gifted entertainer. Had a great sense of humor.".