West Virginia Encyclopedia, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

December 11, 1905: Filmmaker Pare Lorentz Born

Filmmaker “Pare” Lorentz was born in Clarksburg on December 11, 1905. After attending West Virginia Wesleyan College for a year, he transferred to West Virginia University, where he wrote stories for West Virginia Moonshine magazine. At the age of 20, he moved to New York City and began writing for some of the nation’s most popular magazines.

In 1933, Lorentz conceived, edited, and published a pictorial review of Franklin Roosevelt’s first year as president. Two years later, the government contracted with Lorentz to make a film about FDR’s New Deal. The Plow That Broke the Fields was a pioneering film that helped change how documentaries were made. In 1937, he made another film for the administration. The River showed in emotional terms how the New Deal was addressing environmental problems.

During World War II, Lorentz made hundreds of training films for pilots who were flying previously uncharted routes around the world. Pare Lorentz, who is remembered as “FDR’s filmmaker,” died in 1992 at the age of 86. Five years later, the International Documentary Association created the Pare Lorentz Award to honor the best documentary film of the year.

Songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler Born: December 9, 1932

On December 9, 1932, songwriter, musician, playwright, humorist, and poet Billy Edd Wheeler was born in Boone County. He started writing and performing songs when he was just a teenager.

Wheeler got his first check in the music business when Pat Boone recorded his song “Rock Boll Weevil.” He would go on to write more than 500 other songs, including the country classics “Jackson,” “The Reverend Mister Black,” and “Coward of the County.”

Some of his songs are uproariously funny. “Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back” laments the loss of backyard outhouses. But he also wrote poignant songs, like “Coal Tattoo,” which sympathizes with the plight of coal miners.

Over the years, the performers who have recorded Wheeler’s songs read like a Who’s Who of country music. They include Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard, Chet Atkins, Glen Campbell, Bobby Bare, Kenny Rogers, and Hank Williams Jr.

In addition, Wheeler wrote the long-running Hatfields and McCoys play, performed by Theatre West Virginia. In 2007, Billy Edd Wheeler was inducted into the inaugural class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier: October 14, 1947

On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1 rocket airplane dropped from the belly of a B-29 bomber. Seconds later, Yeager entered the history books as the first pilot to break the sound barrier.

By this time, the 24-year-old Lincoln County native was already an aviation legend. During World War II, he had flown 64 combat missions over Europe and, in a single dogfight, had killed 13 Germans. In his eighth mission, he had been shot down over German-occupied France.

After the war, he served in California as a test pilot for high-speed planes. A year after breaking the sound barrier, he visited Charleston and gave the people a show they would never forget. During a boat race on the Kanawha River, he flew his Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet beneath Charleston’s South Side Bridge.

Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 as a brigadier general. Thirty years later, President George W. Bush promoted Yeager to the rank of major general. In 2012, on the 65^th anniversary of his record-setting flight, he again broke the sound barrier—this time, at age 89.

September 21, 1929: Commission Rules Nancy Hanks Born In Mineral Co.

On September 21, 1929, a state commission ruled that Nancy Hanks—the mother of Abraham Lincoln—was born in what is now West Virginia.

The commission concluded that Hanks was born on February 5, 1784, near Antioch on Mikes Run in what would become Mineral County. Within four years of the finding, West Virginia had erected a replica cabin and stone memorial on the supposed site of her birth near Antioch.

But, not everyone agrees on where Nancy was born, and poor record keeping just complicates the matter. Most Lincoln experts now believe she was the illegitimate child of Lucy Hanks but aren’t certain of her father’s identity or where they were living. The state commission based its determinations on a biography of Lincoln by William Barton, which noted that Nancy Hanks’s grandfather had acquired land on Mikes Run about the time of her birth. However, others claim she was born in Virginia, North Carolina, or Kentucky.

In 1966, Governor Hulett Smith announced publicly that despite the commission’s earlier findings, there was no concrete evidence to determine where Nancy Hanks was actually born.

January 12, 1939: Anna Johnson Gates Dies

Anna Johnson Gates died on January 12, 1939, just before her 50th birthday. In the 1910s, the East Bank native fought for women’s suffrage.After women…

Anna Johnson Gates died on January 12, 1939, just before her 50th birthday. In the 1910s, the East Bank native fought for women’s suffrage.

After women were granted the vote nationally in 1920, she served as the associate chair of Kanawha County’s Democratic Executive Committee.

Then, in 1922, she was elected to the West Virginia Legislature, becoming the first woman ever to serve in that body.

During her one term in the legislature, she sponsored 13 pieces of legislation, and five were passed. One of the most significant established ‘‘Mother’s Pensions.’’ This state welfare program provided money to women whose husbands could not support their families. Another successful bill authorized the Kanawha County Board of Education to establish and support a public library. She also chaired the House Committee on Arts, Science and General Improvements.

At the end of her one term, she decided not to run for reelection. Although, she did remain active in local Democratic politics. In 1932, she served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, which nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt for president. She died in Charleston after a long illness.