Doc Williams was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914, the son of parents who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s.  Andro and Susie would have five children--Doc the oldest. When Doc was two years old, the family moved to a farm in Cowansville, Pennsylvania (near Kittanning, which is located about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh). Six years later, the family moved to the little village of Tarrtown, on the Allegheny River, a few miles north of Kittanning. Mud roads, coal oil lamps, pot-bellied stoves, swimming and fishing in the river, and country music on the radio were all part of his growing-up years.

Doc's father taught him most everything he knew about music; and there was always an old fiddle, a cornet, and other instruments around their home. By age 12, Doc had learned to play the cornet by note, and could play many songs from the family hymnbook. He also played the trumpet, accordion, and guitar and had a natural love for music. His father bought him a guitar for $3.00 at a pawnshop, and brother Cy, who was six years younger than Doc, got a fiddle.

Doc's early country music heroes were Jack and Jerry Foy, of KDKA, Pittsburgh. Around 1927, he listened to them every day on a crystal set he had built himself. Another early hero was Montana Slim (Wilf Carter), whom Doc heard over KQV, Pittsburgh, on the CBS Network. Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Tarr, Doc's neighbors, liked to play Jimmy Rodgers' records on their wind-up gramophone, and in the summertime, Doc could hear the music coming through their open windows across the railroad tracks to his home. The neighbors would sometimes invite Doc over to listen to their 78 rpm collection of records.
In 1929, as he was about to enter the 10th grade, Doc had to quit school so that he could help support his family. He would work alongside his father for a couple years in the coal mines. However, during those years, Doc still pursued his love for music by organizing an amateur band. He played guitar and sang vocals, brother Cy played fiddle and helped out on vocal harmonies, and neighbor, Dale Kuhn, played the tenor banjo. The band worked week-end dances for free.

Doc left the mines to follow his dream of becoming a country music entertainer. He returned to Cleveland, Ohio, to live with his maternal grandmother, Suzanna, and landed a couple of seasonal jobs as a maintenance worker. When Suzanna saw that her grandson was serious about music, she gave him with a small Martin guitar, which she had purchased for $45. Doc began rehearsing songs with neighbor, Joe Stoetzer, and they called their duo the Mississippi Clowns. Doc played guitar and harmonica, and Joe played the musical spoons and the kazoo with a horn attached.