Wendy O. Williams

Wendy O. Williams is a Webster native and punk band leader whose 1980s stage theatrics while fronting The Plasmatics included blowing up cars, chain-sawing guitars and strutting around in costumes consisting of little more than shaving cream. She often sported a mohawk haircut.

Milwaukee police arrested Williams in 1981 after she allegedly simulated a sex act in concert. Charges of battery to an officer and obscene conduct were later dropped. She was also acquitted in April 1981 of an obscenity charge in Cleveland filed for performing covered only with shaving cream and simulating sexual activity. She later wracked up a conviction in a minor 1981 assault case in Chicago.

She reportedly once danced on The Howdy Doody Show at age 7. She dropped out of high school and hitchhiked around the U.S. and Europe, working a string of odd jobs that included dancing in strip clubs and performing in pornographic movies. The Plasmatics formed in 1978 and played at the legendary CBGB's shortly thereafter. They made several TV appearances, including two on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show in which they detonated cars in the studio.

Williams, nominated for a Grammy in 1985 in the best female rock vocal category, committed suicide April 6, 1998, at the age of 48.

Official site: http://www.plasmatics.com/