SAN ANTONIO ROSE: Dayna Wills, the niece of western swing legend Bob Wills, performs at a care facility in Lodi earlier this month. The Stockton resident sings for crowds at nursing homes and retirement communities throughout the Valley, including Manteca’s Merrill Gardens Retirement Community

Niece of country western great brings smiles to local care homes

MANTECA — Any self-respecting country western music fan knows the name Bob Wills. Known as the Father of Western Swing, Wills topped charts and packed auditoriums with his big band-style twist on country music in the years leading up to and following World War II.

Thirty-three years after his death, Wills’s legacy is still being carried out: He’s been inducted into halls of fame, given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Carrie Underwood even performed his song, “San Antonio Rose,” at the 2006 Grammy Awards.

In Manteca, his legacy has carried on in a different way — through his niece, Stockton resident Dayna Wills, who is using her well-tuned vocal chords for a more humble purpose.

Once a month, 59-year-old Dayna carts her amps and mics into the Merrill Gardens Retirement Home, where 50 or so elderly men and women gather in a second floor rec room to munch on cookies and listen to her songs of yesteryear.

“My name is Dayna Wills, and I’m a professional singer-songwriter,” she begins her performance from under her cowboy hat. “I’ve traveled all over the world and parts of Ripon.”

The room falls silent and toes start tapping as Dayna starts belting out old classics like “Teacher’s Pet” and “South of the Border,” singing along to prerecorded tracks on a CD player next to her.
 

“She’s wonderful, isn’t she?” one white-haired woman whispers across a hushed table.

Dayna wasn’t close to her uncle Bob growing up — he lived in Texas and was constantly on the road — but at her home in Sacramento, she couldn’t help but get caught up in the music bug that afflicted her family.

When she was 18, Dayna took to the road with a  seven-piece rock and roll band called “Speedy and the Roadrunners.” She later joined a jazz trio, performing at hotel bars across the country.

Years later, Dayna returned to her country western roots, singing and writing her own songs and performing each year at the Bob Wills Day Festival in Turkey, Texas, an event that draws some 10,000 fans to Bob Wills’s tiny hometown.

In recent years, Dayna has won awards for her songwriting and has been inducted into the Sacramento Western Swing Society Hall of Fame.

But most gratifying, she says, have been her performances in care facilities, which she started in 1990 as a favor to a friend who worked with Alzheimer’s patients.

“These people who were just sitting there, just vacant, started coming to life,” Dayna recalls. “They were singing along, they knew the words… It was the most gratifying thing.”

Dayna now plays for 25 or so Alzheimer’s centers, retirement homes and care facilities within 60 miles of her Stockton home. Wherever she goes, she’s got quite a following.

“It’s pretty much a full house,” said Merrill Gardens Activities Director Anette Alvitre. “They love her.”