Bio

Willie "Coon" White, Jr. was born on March 21, 1948 in Hoboken, Georgia. White first entered the woods as a turpentine hand when still just a boy. His father taught him how to chip his first box, and before long, he was a member of what his first boss man (Frank Dukes) called the "Little Boys' Squad." The group consisted of seven or eight boys supervised by a woodsrider who drove the boys around on a tractor while the youngsters dipped gum.

When White was 16 years old, he graduated out of the "Little Boys' Squad," quit school, and began working turpentine fulltime. He remained in the woods for several years before getting hired by George Varn to work at the Varn Turpentine Still in Hoboken. After several years of work at the still, turpentine began to dry up as an industry in the United States. The pines, however, remained as much a part of the occupational framework as ever, and Willie White fell into his current job in the sawmill at Varn Wood Products, also in Hoboken.

Today, White continues to live with his wife in Hoboken, where he is a preacher at a local Holiness church and a talented gospel singer and guitarist.

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