Billy Edd Wheeler, who wrote countless hit songs for dozens of artists, has died at age 91.
The legendary songwriter and performer died Monday at his home in Swannanoa, North Carolina, the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame announced.
“My father, Billy Edd Wheeler, passed away peacefully yesterday at home surrounded by his family,” one of his sons wrote on social media. “We love you, Dad. You will be greatly missed, but we will also forever remember you for all the gifts you gave to this world.”
Throughout his long career, Wheeler wrote award-winning songs for many musicians, including Judy Collins, Bobby Darin, The Kingston Trio, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Kenny Rogers and Elvis, according to Your website.
Wheeler, along with Jerry Leiber, wrote “Jackson” in 1963, which was later sung as a duet between Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash.
Billy Edd Wheeler, who wrote countless hit songs for dozens of artists, has died at age 91
Wheeler was born in a small town in West Virginia in 1932 to a working-class family.
“Billy Edd was raised by his mother and grew up in extreme poverty in the coal mines. With an uncommon gift for storytelling, an abundance of rural intelligence and perseverance, Billy Edd was a true Renaissance man,” wrote the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Some of his other famous songs include “Coal Tattoo” and “The Reverend Mr. Black.”
Kenny Rogers’ version of Wheeler’s “Coward of the County” became a No. 1 single when it came out in 1980. The following year it would be made into a movie also starring Kenny Rogers.
Kyle Young, executive director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, commented on Wheeler’s storytelling ability in a tribute he wrote for him.
Wheeler has won 13 awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for his songwriting, and in 2007 was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
‘Billy Edd Wheeler was a composer who could condense an entire cinematic experience into a few minutes.
‘Billy Edd had a narrative gift that allowed him to tell a big-screen story about simmering anger in ‘Coward of the County’ or a racy tale of a marriage in jeopardy that came to represent the playful, passionate dynamic between Johnny and June in ‘Jackson.’
“His writings had the power to do what only the best creative works can: transport the listener,” Young wrote.
He has won 13 awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for the songs he has written, and in 2007 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Although best known for his music, Wheeler has also written a dozen plays and has written or co-written several country humor books.
He served as a student pilot in the Navy before completing his graduate studies at Yale, where he majored in playwriting.
One of his most famous works focuses on the long and often bloody feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, infamous families of West Virginia in the 19th century.
The play returned this year to an amphitheater in Beckley, West Virginia, and ran through June, WVNS reported.
Wheeler graduated from Warren Wilson Junior College in Swannanoa in 1953, and then earned a degree from Berea College in Kentucky, according to his website.
He served as a student pilot in the Navy before completing his graduate studies at Yale, where he majored in playwriting.
He apparently considered himself Yale’s “token hick.”
Wheeler is survived by his wife Mary Mitchell Bannerman and two children Lucy and Travis.
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