Editing C. W. McCall (section)

==Early life==
McCall was born '''Billie Dale Fries'''<ref name="wapobit">{{Cite news |last=Schudel |first=Matt |date=April 1, 2022 |title=Bill Fries, who had No. 1 hit as C.W. McCall with 'Convoy,' dies at 93 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/04/01/country-music-performer-cw-mccall-dies/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220402180833/https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/04/01/country-music-performer-cw-mccall-dies/ |archive-date=April 2, 2022 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |work=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> on November 15, 1928, in [[Audubon, Iowa]], the son of William Dale "Billie" Fries Sr. and Margaret Fries.<ref name="LarkinCountry">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1993|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-726-6|page=247}}</ref> He later legally changed his name to '''William Dale Fries, Jr.'''<ref name=wapobit/>  One of his sons is now Bill Fries III.{{r|NYT}}

His family was musical; Bill Sr., a farm equipment factory foreman by day, performed with his two brothers in '' The Fries Brothers Band''{{r|T}}  and played the violin while Margaret played the piano and the two played [[ragtime]] together at dances. Bill Sr. frequently hauled prefabricated swine barns to customers, which introduced Bill Jr. to the world of trucking.<ref name=1970scraze/>  Bill Jr. first performed at the age of three in a local talent contest, singing "[[She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain|Coming ' Round the Mountain]]" while his mother played the piano.  He studied music at school, playing the [[clarinet]] and the music of [[John Philip Sousa]] and became the [[Drum major (marching band)|drum major]] for the school's [[marching band]].  As a child, he enjoyed listening to [[country music]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oldies.com/artist-view/CW-McCall.html|title=C.W. McCall|website=Oldies.com|access-date=May 8, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509012459/https://www.oldies.com/artist-view/CW-McCall.html|url-status=live}}</ref> but he was even more interested in art, having started copying the cartoon characters of [[Walt Disney]] as a child.  He went to the Fine Arts School at the [[University of Iowa]] where he majored in [[commercial art]] and also performed in the university's symphony orchestra, but he had to leave the university after one year as he could not afford to compete, for jobs to pay tuition, with the many demobbed soldiers who were going through college on the [[GI Bill of Rights]].{{r|BD|NG}}  He then returned to Audubon to work as a [[signwriter]].{{r|NYT}}

In 1950, he got a job as a commercial artist with [[KMTV-TV|KMTV]] in [[Omaha, Nebraska]].  He worked for them for ten years, doing graphic work, lettering and [[set design]].  He also supported the local ballet and opera societies, doing work which won an award from the Omaha Artists and Art Directors Club.  This attracted the attention of [[Bozell|Bozell & Jacobs]] which was a local advertising agency and they gave him a job as an [[art director]], doubling his salary.{{r|BD|NG}}