Slim Wilson

Wilson appeared on such RadiOzark Transcriptions as The Red Foley Show. Rocket Records released a Wilson 45 single, "The Shepherd Of The Hills" b/w "God Walk These Ozark Hills" (Rocket 103). He also appeared on the albums Christmas RFD (Sony 1991) and Christmas in the Country (United Multimedia, 1994).

Wilson died July 15, 1990 in Springfield (a day after his 80th birthday) and is buried in Eastlawn Cemetery there.

Wilson had a small role as Man No. 1 in the "Silver Dollar City Fair" episode of The Beverly Hillbillies on CBS-TV, first aired on October 8, 1969.

In July 1967, Country Music Carousel featuring Wilson was videotaped at KYTV, produced by Hal Smith Television Programs of Nashville, Tennessee. Sixteen 30-minute shows were taped in two nights; the program was unsuccessful.

He hosted The Slim Wilson Show from the studios of Springfield’s KYTV-TV from 1964–1975. The hour-long country music variety series aired on Saturdays from 6–7 p.m. CT and featured The Tall Timber Trio, joined by Roger Blevins (steel guitar) and Buster Fellows (fiddle) to comprise the Tall Timber Band; The Goodwill Family; and the Promenaders square dancing group with their caller, L.D. Keller. Haworth’s daughter, Shirley Jean, also appeared, along with other local entertainers. By 1966 it was telecast in color.

Slim and Ada Wilson had one son, John Wesley Wilson, who was also a musician. Wilson enjoyed bowling, fishing and quail hunting and traveled to South Dakota annually in the 1960s to hunt pheasant. He owned a cabin on Table Rock Lake.

In 1955, Wilson became a featured cast member on Ozark Jubilee for its nearly six-year run on ABC-TV, and was also a fill-in host for Red Foley. He was a versatile performer on the show, serving as the front man for both the Tall Timber Trio (sometimes known as the Tall Timber Boys), then made up of Herschel "Speedy" Haworth, White, and "Doc" Martin (steel guitar); and the Jubilee Band, composed of Haworth, Martin, White, Johnny Gailey (drums), Paul Mitchell (piano) and Zed Tennis (fiddle). He and Rutledge also teamed up again as Flash and Whistler. On the November 7, 1959 show, Wilson sang "Let's Go to Church" as a duet with Patsy Cline. In the summer of 1955, he hosted his own ABC program, Talent Varieties. Wilson also appeared on NBC-TV’s Five Star Jubilee in 1961, and performed with the Tall Timber Trio on NBC-TV's Today on the Farm from 1960–61.

Wilson was responsible for giving Wesley West his nickname: he introduced West to the audience as "Speedy" West at a pie social and jam session sponsored by KWTO. He worked briefly at radio stations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Denver, Colorado before returning to the Ozarks. By the early 1950s, Wilson was among the top performers on KWTO, hosting the morning show sponsored by Martha White Flour (one advertiser created a Goodwill Family Flour brand). By 1954, he had done his 25,000th broadcast on the station. He also appeared on Red Foley’s network radio programs.

Wilson recorded numerous transcriptions in the 1940s and 1950s but few commercial cuts. He recorded songs on Universal in 1948; and Cattle Records released an LP, Slim Pickens Wilson–The Idol Of The Ozarks (Cattle 121), featuring Rutledge. The Goodwill Family recorded 250 transcriptions for airing on KWTO when they toured.

Wilson's December 1936 recording of "The Little Old Sod Shanty On The Claim" is part of the Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Wilson formed The Goodwill Trio as "Uncle Slim" with his sister Vancie as "Aunt Martha" and her son, Herschel "Junior" Haworth. The trio first appeared on KGBX in Springfield in 1932; but moved to co-owned KWTO, the more powerful station, soon after it signed on in 1933. The group made its first public appearance in 1936 at the county courthouse in Galena as a fundraiser to treat their father's broken leg. The trio later became The Goodwill Family when Guy Smith joined them as "Uncle George."

About 1930, his father rented a house on the family's ranch to the Hancock family from South Dakota. A year later, Wilson married Ada Hancock. By 1934, he was raising dairy and beef cattle on 150 acres (60.7 hectares) north of Bolivar, Missouri, on the Pomme de Terre River. His father bought the adjoining parcel.

Clyde Carol Wilson (July 14, 1910 – July 15, 1990), better known as Slim Wilson, was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and radio and TV personality who was a cornerstone of country music in the Ozarks for more than 50 years beginning in the 1930s; both in his own right, and as a member of The Goodwill Family and The Tall Timber Trio. Wilson was a mainstay of ABC-TV’s Ozark Jubilee; and hosted ABC's Talent Varieties in 1955 and his own local television show in Springfield, Missouri, from 1964–1975.