Biography
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Born
9 December 1932
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Born In
Whitesville, Boone County, West Virginia, United States
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Died
16 September 2024 (aged 91)
Billy Edd Wheeler (born Billy Edward Wheeler in Boone County, West Virginia, on 9 December 1932; died 16 September 2024) was an American singer and songwriter remembered for his songs that include "Jackson" (Grammy award winner for]Johnny Cash and June Carter) "The Reverend Mr. Black", "Desert Pete", "Ann", "High Flyin' Bird", "The Coming of the Roads", "It’s Midnight", "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back", "Coal Tattoo", "Winter Sky", and "Coward of the County" (which inspired a 1981 television movie of the same name). He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001, the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007, and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2011.
Wheeler's songs have been performed by over 160 different artists including Judy Collins, Jefferson Airplane, Bobby Darin, The Kingston Trio, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Kenny Rogers, Hazel Dickens, and Elvis Presley. One of his co-writers, on the song "Hadn't Been For Baby" recorded by Soul group The Relatives, was singer-songwriter Jimmy Radcliffe.
Wheeler was also author of sixteen plays. These include several long-running outdoor dramas such as Hatfields & McCoys at Beckley, West Virginia and Young Abe Lincoln in Lincoln City, Indiana.
Wheeler was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001, the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007, and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2011. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from his two alma maters: Berea College in 2004, and Warren Wilson College in 2011.
He received 13 awards from ASCAP, won distinguished Alumnus awards from Warren Wilson College and Berea College, the "Best Appalachian Poetry" award from Morris Harvey College and a "Pacesetter Award for Music and Drama" from Billboard Magazine.
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