This bespectacled, dynamic lead tenor caused various groups in Southern California before gaining a wider audience when he joined the Nature of Memphis in 1950. Detailed variously during his profession as Willmer, Wilmer, Wilbur, and Willie “Small Ax” Broadnax, the “buzzing tenor” led the Southern Gospel Performers, the Golden Echoes, and afterwards the Nature of Memphis Quartet through the ’50s.