Hall of Fame Songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler Dies at 91
Photo Courtesy of West Virginia Music Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame musician Billy Edd Wheeler passed away on Monday, September 16, at the age of 91.
Wheeler’s family and the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame confirmed his passing through separate social media tribute posts.
Billy Edd Wheeler, born in 1932 in Boone County, Whitesville, was raised by his mother and grew up “dirt poor in the coalfields,” according to the WVMHoF.
In his young adult years, Wheeler graduated from Warren Wilson Junior College in Swannanoa, North Carolina, in 1953 and Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, in 1955. After serving as a student pilot in the Navy, he went on to graduate from Yale’s prestigious School of Drama, majoring in playwriting, as noted on his website. According to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame’s tribute, Wheeler always considered himself the Ivy League school’s “token hillbilly.”
Wheeler’s success and talent shone through on many occasions as he worked with and wrote for some of the greatest artists of all time. His songs have been recorded by legends such as Elvis Presley, the Kingston Trio, Judy Collins, Neil Young, Kathy Mattea, Johnny and June Carter Cash, and many more.
Some of Billy Edd Wheeler’s most famous songs include “Jackson,” “Blistered,” “The Rev. Mr. Black,” “Desert Pete,” “Anne,” “High Flying Bird,” “The Coming of the Roads,” “Itâs Midnight,” “Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back,” “Coal Tattoo,” and “Coward of the County,”â which was popularized by Kenny Rogers, becoming a No. 1 single and eventually being adapted into a movie.
In 2007, Billy Edd Wheeler was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
He was also honored with induction into the Nashville Association of Songwriters International Hall of Fame. He received numerous other recognitions, including Distinguished Alumnus awards from Warren Wilson College and Berea College, “Best Appalachian Poetry” from Morris Harvey College, and Billboard Magazine’s “Pacesetter Award for Music and Drama.” Additionally, Berea College awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 2004, his website states.
Billy Edd Wheeler is survived by his two children, Lucy and Travis, who he had with his wife, Mary Mitchell Bannerman.
