The Willis Clan: A tribute to Mamma Brenda Willis. (slideshow)

Music from their 9th of January 2015 performance at the Opry. Pics from all around the internet.
Tribute: ' A gift, payment, declaration, or other acknowledgment of gratitude, respect, or admiration.'

[@kevinroberts9580]

Beautiful and amazing mother to hold the family together and keep them on track with love. She carried on throughout the hard times. Best Mom ever!

[@Kitanaangel49]

I have always loved you all❤❤❤❤

[@marlaperry4972]

Beautiful Family! Love y’all and miss the Willis Family

[@Andrea-dv7od]

Mama Brenda looks like a kid herself. I hope she heals and takes the kids onward past the pain.

[@dogloverrn8]

+Andrea Kelley I agree with you! So heartbreaking for this amazing family! What a beautiful song for momma Brenda! 💖😢

[@reginawelsh1050]

I love this song, it touched me as I am a mom 3 boys I thought of my boys when I heard this song...... Yal are great

[@marlaperry4972]

Love this ! Beautiful song and beautiful family

[@lindsayvanrenterghem2377]

made me cry .

[@lindaallen7058]

You all will survive and be stronger and better put it all in gods hands and he will get you where you need to be god bless all your great

[@suepinckney5739]

These kids are the best!!! Always professional, polite, and caring. A huge tribute to both Toby & Brenda. I could listen and watch them all day.

[@lynells3060]

I pray they are doing well. I miss them.

[@cindylim9123]

I just wanna say the willis clan mum, mama just to be strong

[@Jameswilliamson405]

Pray. For WILLIS family

[@judishiner3945]

James Williamson q

[@edlenefreire6873]

Genteeeee , que família lindaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! Ainda existe essa instituição tão falida nos dias de hoje F A M I L I A!!!!!! PArab na Tobi e Br nada willow muitas beijos😍❤️ i love you gays...

[@Kitanaangel49]

I love your group. Is mom doing well? I live in Et.Maryville, TN😢😢❤❤

[@soter241167]

Gran Mamà!!!

[@sandiewerdman6549]

I would have left the dad out of all the pictures, after the harm he caused this beautiful family.

[@standingandwaiting2359]

The mum new all along...not sure if I would dedicate anything to her

[@jeantaylor2308]

Gwen M So she still slept with him and provided more girls for him to abuse. To think it all started when the oldest was the age of that sweet little one we first saw on AGT.

[@damselcausingdistress81]

I agree!! Jessica's blog said she for sure knew since Jessica was 9 years old. So at a minimum she knew for 15 years!!!

[@tracienatalie673]

The mother was a victim herself. Trapped. No where to go, the brain protects itself through denial, she was abused and no mother wants to see her children hurt, they were trapped in a system far more commen then u could imagine. It is a miracle they got out.

[@lisabowden402]

I agree. If she even had a hint of knowledge why not speak up?

[@mrsTraveller64]

I whish that all the siblings voices would be heard in this song,they could have split the sentences between them,even the little ones could have been allowed to sing a few sentences!

[@jonal42]

women are strong, brenda is,,,,,,and she is behind those kids, and lives thru them .........!!! ;) stay strong ,,,,,,,,,,u ;)

[@pamhart4341]

Thank God Brenda and the kids are now safe. The oldest girls suffered a tragedy that no one but the authorities could stop. It must have killed her inside when the truth came out. As a mother we all want and will do anything to protect our children. I hope and pray she is doing ok. But they need to get the band back together cause us fans miss them as well as her. Take care Brenda and may god bless you all

[@rgc540]

"...will do anything to protect our children"? Except doing the only thing that could protect them - fleeing and reporting him to authorities. No matter the cost, no matter the outcome. Subjecting a child to abuse is NEVER excusable. Certainly, the father was broken, but for his gig to last 20 years.. seems like someone else was broken to perhaps a lesser degree. And if you want to go down the road of victim brokenness... then it begs the question... who broke the father? Was he once a victim, too? And is he less deserving of kindness and tolerance as she is? Does committing abuse make you more guilty than allowing it to continue for however long... at all... period? Always inexcusable, now matter how you shake it.

[@cindylim9123]

just have to be understand for dad human are not perfect be strong god bless you the willis clan

[@angieandersen0705]

Not good example for a mother. Poor kids, what they have to go through and she didn’t know? Her kids are not only beautiful and very talented but extremely kind and forgiving.

[@brookelorenzo8936]

Can someone please tell me the guitar chords for this song??? Please asap!!

[@nieukoop263]

You can find them on www.thewillisclanfans.boards.net

[@dawnegan3984]

She is living of them I feel for the kids not her she knew

[@tracey1187]

People u can't believe everything on the internet. Time will tell the truth will come out later. You werent there you don't know what actually happened

[@georgiayoung9124]

I cannot in any way admire this woman! Be strong? She was strong...on the side of her husband and keeping the money rolling in...not her girls!!

[@heathermoulton3221]

Georgia Young as a survivor myself, I can tell you that I am sure that no only was Toby sexually assaulting his daughter’s, Brenda was probably being sexually and physically assaulted. Perps are monsters! They can fool the best. So please be kind. If you don’t know the “rest of the story” please don’t say horrible things!

[@oliviamartini9700]

@@heathermoulton3221 But we DO know. Jessica herself wrote that she told her mother when she was nine, and after one argument it was dismissed. Fifteen long years and the fourth daughter broke down and told while they were touring. STILL Brenda kept quiet, until Jessica's fiance told the police many months later. I understand why the kids won't - can't - blame her, who else would they have? But I cannot listen to everyone rushing to her defence - she chose to ignore it all those years, and to have four abused daughters (probably all EIGHT since he started molesting when they were three) when she had the power to stop the damage at one.

[@heathermoulton3221]

Olivia Martini again, I say... how do you know that he was not abusing Brenda? Could he have said ‘if if you to the police, I will kill you?’ No, we don’t know that. I am not taking sides. I am just saying we don’t know the whole story which has many sides. The only ones who know the whole truth are the ones who lived it and God. I am sure that on judgement Day God will know what to do! We will probably never hear from any of the Willis’ again which I think is a shame since they all have wonderful God given talents.

[@oliviamartini9700]

@@heathermoulton3221 I have no doubt he was abusing Brenda as well and she lived in fear. This might - might - exonerate her if she was turning a blind eye to "just" the beatings. But as you know, sexual abuse takes it to the point of lifelong damage that affects every aspect of self-worth. It will be a miracle if these girls choose life partners who aren't cut from the same cloth, much less have the maturity and compassion to assist them with years of healing and PTSD. Note that the oldest four have rushed/escaped into early marriages for false security, which rarely works when healing can only come from within. All they've ever known is military-style training, rapes, beatings and hiding behind a smiling facade of "Christian values" taught by their father in a mini cult, an offshoot of the Quiverfull movement (look at the incest in the Duggar family). Who knows why Brenda was an accomplice, but she was, and just kept birthing more victims. Whatever her motivation, she was a perp too, and God's wrath (or unlikely forgiveness) has zero bearing on the here and now. Some of those children will rear their children the same way as it's all they knew. Some will abuse drugs and alcohol; at least one will suicide. Brenda is responsible in the way churches protect ministers and priests who are paedophiles. This isn't the Victorian era where wives lost all property and custody. She had an escape route had she put her kids first, particularly if she had taken 9-yr-old Jessica to the police station. But Toby's multi-million $ settlement, the lure of fame and further fortune with their manufactured Von Trapps and putting on appearances as the saintlike Madonna with the Perfect Family was too appealing.. In no way did she strike me as the beaten-down wife, she had a voice, a mind of her own, legal recourse and primarily the responsibility for the safety of her children. I can't help but believe that on a subconscious level she was relieved that his high sexual demands were no longer all on her. Denial is one thing. Being told and letting it continue is being an accessory. Your compassion is wasted on her, please save it exclusively for the kids and their kids as the fallout lasts for generations. Sorry for the long missive, I know your heart is in the right place, but to condone her behavior is saying to society that it is acceptable, which in no way it was.

[@heathermoulton3221]

Olivia, when I finally told my mom, her response blew me away. She made me a drink and said ‘Heather, all brothers do that to their sisters.’ So I do understand how abuse of any kind perpetuates abuse. I am now 64. And that was almost 35 years ago that I told my mom. I am certainly not giving Brenda a pass, by any means. I am just saying that I don’t think it is up to us to judge her for what she did or did not do.

[@dwaynetempest3433]

yee haw loves u all ,,wild bull ride

[@lisabowden402]

I don’t understand how this momma didn’t stop the abuse. IM NOT POINTING FINGERS . just why? You were there. You had to know something.

[@Egosens]

The poor women was abused too. Maybe she was to scared and didn't knew how to proceed, what if she would have tried something that doesn't work and then she would not be there at all (like that he kick her out of the family or kill her)

[@carmelita2084]

Her oldest daughter Jessica, did tell her what was happening with her. The only thing I can come up with is that possibly the mom may have found this some how familiar...😢😢😢

[@rgc540]

@@tonysangster7383 Certainly, the father was broken, but for his gig to last 20 years.. seems like someone else was broken to perhaps a lesser degree. And if you want to go down the road of victim brokenness... then it begs the question... who broke the father? Was he once a victim, too? And is he less deserving of kindness and tolerance as she is? Does committing abuse make you more guilty than allowing it to continue for years? Subjecting a child to abuse, even if for your own safety or peace of mind, is still inexcusable. Always inexcusable, now matter how you shake it.

[@rgc540]

@@Egosens, what if she would have done something to protect them and failed? She would have had a clear conscience, knowing she did everything in her power to protect them from a perpetrator. There is nothing noble about leaving them accessible to a perpetrator, because you are afraid that any action could backfire. Inaction is inexcusable where children are being violated. Period.

[@rgc540]

​@@tonysangster7383 , I appreciate your gracious discourse, and I respect your perspective and opinions. As to the dynamics - I have witnessed them in numerous families, to which I was too close for comfort - and unfortunately, it's not so cut and dried, that there is one monster, and that all others are victimized and guiltless. All too often, the "innocent" and "unaware" bystanders have chosen their position and for various reasons we can only speculate. Sadly, more often than not, they ignore repeated gut checks, and continue on in a path of chosen denial, because the truth is too painful or inconvenient (or seemingly impossible?) to accept. Unless the eldest sister is outright lying in a very public way with none yet decrying her claims (and to my knowledge, the siblings are currently all in good standing), it is clear that the mother was suspicious, "Something (I’m still not sure what) caused my mother to become suspicious of my father’s interactions." Suspicious enough to raise her voice against him for the first time. And then when it seemed to be *confirmed* to her on at least a second occasion, when Jessica found "my mother and some of my sisters sitting on the bed crying with that look on their face I had seen so many times before," she did not take immediate action to remove the children from him, nor did she immediately report a sexual offender for his crimes against her own children. "From that day on, our public life continued on without missing a beat - If anything, it intensified." Of course we don't know all the details. Perhaps she did take measures to ensure he was never alone with any of the children after that point. At any rate, we do know that she was suspicious six years in, and how many more would suffer while the family took a very public stage, knowing there were skeletons lurking in the closet. With that said, please don't mistake me for diminishing the horror that any woman must face in merely having to suspect such a thing. As in any convoluted dysfunction, the truth and what is right can become blurry and even seem irrelevant. Nevertheless, nobody gets a pass. Though everyone may have an understandable reason for their culpable negligence, at some point, they chose to believe something other than what they intrinsically knew. And children were harmed.

[@johnfrank6513]

What happen to the mother

[@biancanavas2668]

I was so F'ing scared when i saw this. I nearly had a heart attack because it says a 'tribute to' so i thought she died. PLEASE CHANGE THE TITLE

[@nieukoop263]

Tribute: 'An act, statement, or gift that is intended to show gratitude, respect, or admiration:' Definition by Oxford Dictionary

[@damselcausingdistress81]

Tribute has nothing to do with death,passing or mourning! You are quite confused!!

[@ABirdOnTheMoon]

Wait, didn’t the mother stand by her husband?

[@lannalane4247]

NO. She announced right away that she was fully cooperating with the police and court. She was probably happy that he was caught.

[@ABirdOnTheMoon]

lanna lane I read conflict stories and the kids / girls have minimal relationship with her now? I am not sure which is true but surely I read she stood by him even in court appearance! She was by his side if I remember correctly.

[@angieandersen0705]

Not a good mother and a poor example. Fantastic kids❤️❤️❤️.

[@SUNNY-Z8]

What happened with her husband,why he did all that???!!!

[@lannalane4247]

I wonder if it started when his 6 little brothers and sister were killed. That could really crack a person's brain.

[@omidahmadi8289]

Very nice mama Willis,,,,perfekt mama ,,,gud mama,,,,,,,,,,🌝🌝🌝🌝🌝

[@donnalea9877]

People back off she loved her kids but most important they loved her she was a victim like the kids til you live it you don’t know I was abused and went threw a lot bc I loved my family and mother and was abused by a step father who could be just as dangerous you have no idea what he could of and would of done to her and those kids he beat them for God’s sake you don’t back a snake in the corner

[@rgc540]

Certainly, the father was broken, but for his gig to last 20 years.. seems like someone else was broken to perhaps a lesser degree. And if you want to go down the road of victim brokenness... then it begs the question... who broke the father? Was he once a victim, too? And is he less deserving of kindness and tolerance as she is? Does committing abuse make you more guilty than allowing it to continue for over 20 years? Subjecting a child to abuse, even if for your own safety or peace of mind, is still inexcusable. Always inexcusable, now matter how you shake it.