Governor Arch Moore Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Legends Of Lore Marker Dedicated To Banjo Player Aunt Jeanie Wilson

Aunt Jeanie Wilson was recently honored with a Legends of Lore sign in Chief Logan State Park.

Aunt Jeanie Wilson was usually playing her banjo somewhere along the road in Logan County, surrounded by a crowd of neighbors.

Her granddaughter Beverly Smith was part of that crowd as a young girl. Recently, at the age of 73, she stood with dignitaries in Chief Logan State Park for the unveiling of the Aunt Jeanie Wilson Legends of Lore sign.

Smith said, while growing up, her grandmother’s house was like a never-ending holiday, where friends and family were always coming and going.

“Her door was open to anyone,” Smith said. “The kids that grew up down there, where we lived on Crooked Creek, would hear her music play. And she would be on her front porch in the swing, playing her banjo. You would hear the music all over the neighborhood. She invited all these artists and different people to come and sit on the front porch and play with her anytime they wanted to.”

Smith flew in with her husband to attend the dedication. She said flying was something her grandmother was very afraid to do, and turned down an invitation to be on the Jack Paar show because she did not want to fly. However, when invited to the United Mine Workers Convention in Denver she decided to fly because she so strongly supported the union.

*Credit: Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Smith grew up singing and dancing along to her grandmother’s music. She said anywhere Wilson played there would be a crowd.

Roots of Blues

Wilson played old mountain music — which predates bluegrass music. Old mountain music is a blend of Scottish and English ballads and African Dance and hymnal music from the enslaved African people.

The Claw hammer style of playing originates from enslaved African American musicians who made the earliest banjos out of hollowed out gourds with animal hyde as strings.

Kim Johnson plays the banjo claw hammer style.

*Credit: Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

The music was distinctive of early southern Appalachian mountain music. It’s different from a bluegrass banjo style, where the strumming hand of the player is pulling upward.

Claw hammer got its name from the claw-like shape the player makes with their strumming hand while playing. The banjo player strums downward, often using the tips of their fingers and nails.

“She always just used your fingernails and she trimmed up like you would for a harp. It was a very unique style,” Smith said.

West Virginia Woman

Friends said Wilson was a mountain woman through and through. She would hike up into the mountains to find poke and creasy greens, and mushrooms to feed her family. She was a sharpshooter with a shotgun and hosted big dinners at her house every Sunday.

Bobby Taylor met Wilson at the 1950 Mountain State Art and Craft Fair in Ripley, where Wilson had become a regular. They played together often after meeting.

“She just did what was pure and old from the mountains,” Taylor said. “I always considered her tops as far as the heritage,and the music. She had the most beautiful right hand on the banjo, smooth as a ribbon.”

Bobby Taylor plays the fiddle.

*Credit: Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

West Virginia Suffering

Wilson married at age 18, and had four children with her husband James Dewey Wilson. In 1939 she lost her seven-year-old child to pneumonia and later that year her husband died in a coal mining accident.

“You had to suffer to be able to play the music and have the feeling and soul in it like she had. There’s real feeling and real soul,” Taylor said.

He said her understanding of pain and true sadness is what made her such an enlightened musician.

“People that really suffered. You can feel the chill in the music. All of that comes through. The sorrow, the pain — but also the good times. The light, the dancing. It’s beautiful,” Taylor said.

Legend and Lore

Wilson went on to play for Ronald Reagan in the White House, and often played for Arch Moore, the former governor, who wrote her letters from prison after he was convicted for mail and tax fraud, according to her grandchildren.

Smith said Wilson changed her political affiliation from Democrat to Republican after meeting Ronald Reagan.

Wilson won the 1984 Vandalia award.

*Credit: Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

She became a fixture at festivals around the state, appeared on the show “Real People.”.

Wilson died at age 92 at Logan General Hospital. Her family members said she was playing the banjo with friends and family up until her last days.

Now, nestled in Chief Logan State Park sits Aunt Jeanie Wilson’s legends and lore marker.

The marker was created with help from Logan County Chamber of Commerce, West Virginia State Parks, the National Coal Heritage Authority, and the West Virginia Folklife program at the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Donna Boley, The Longest Serving State Senator

Since Boley first started working in the state Senate there has been seven governors and seven US presidents.

In 1991, Donna Boley was the only Republican in the state Senate. Now she is part of a Republican supermajority in the West Virginia Legislature.

Boley, of Pleasants County, was appointed by Republican Gov. Arch Moore in 1985. She has been elected 11 times since then and is the longest serving senator in the state’s history.

“It never dawned on me that we would become a majority or supermajority,” Boley said.

Many of her past colleagues, sick of having so little political power, decided not to run again — leaving her the only Republican in the Senate for a couple years.

“They just decided that at the last minute they weren’t going to run, because they didn’t like being in the minority,” Boley said. “So, I guess if they didn’t like being in the minority, they just walked away.”

But Boley stayed. For many years, she said she was the only “no” vote.

“I never had a problem being in the minority because I always thought we would be the minority,” Boley said.

Donna Boley was sworn in by Gov. Arch Moore on May 14, 1985.

*Courtesy*

However, throughout the 2000s and 2010s, more and more Republicans won.

“Everything sort of changed in 2014,” she said.

After the 2014 midterm, the Senate officially flipped. Seventeen Republicans were elected, and 17 Democrats were elected.

While some officials were trying to figure out who would be the Senate President, others were trying to find a senator who was willing to switch to another party — and bring with them majority control.

That senator was Danial Hall of Wyoming County. After being elected as a Democrat, he switched.

“It made the (tally) 18 to 16. So, we took over that night,” Boley said.

The close split between the parties didn’t last long. By 2020, Republicans had a supermajority, meaning they occupied two-thirds of the seats in both the House and Senate.

For Boley and other Republicans, this was the beginning of a new era for Republicans in West Virginia. But unlike many of her colleagues, Boley had been around to see the limitations and challenges that supermajorities face from watching how the Democrats used their once vast powers.

“You tend to start fighting amongst yourself,” she said.

Last session, Republicans did fight among themselves. Republican Sen. Robert Karnes of Randolph County was removed from the Senate chamber after he demanded some of the bills be read in full — a tactic occasionally used in the legislature to use up a lot of time and to make a political point.

Boley also has some wisdom to pass down to her Democratic colleagues.

“Well, the minority leader now is Sen. (Mike) Woelfel. And he stopped me during the regular session and said, ‘I need to talk to you. It looks like I might be appearing next year as the lone Democrat.’ And I said, ‘Well you know, just enjoy it. There is not much you can do except stand up and vote no. If you don’t agree with it, just vote no,” Boley said.

And that’s what Boley did, and said she will continue to do until she is ready to retire — which she said she doesn’t plan on doing currently.

Outside work, Boley loves to spend time with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She said she tries to see them as much as possible. She loves her work in the legislature and said she is grateful she stayed — even when she was the only one.

April 16, 1923: Governor Arch Moore Born in Moundsville

Arch Moore was born in Moundsville on April 16, 1923. During World War II, he was severely wounded in the face and had to learn to talk again during his long hospital recovery. The Republican was elected to the state legislature in 1952 and to Congress four years later.

In 1968, he was elected West Virginia’s 28^th governor. Moore was one of the most skilled politicians and perhaps the most controversial governor in state history. He fired more than 2,600 striking highway workers while leading an expansive road-building campaign. He also helped settle a national coal strike, fought for teacher pay raises, and initiated a statewide kindergarten program.

After a change to the state constitution, he became the first governor in more than a century to serve two consecutive terms. He was elected to an unprecedented third term in 1984, but, with corruption allegations hanging over him, he lost his reelection to Gaston Caperton in 1988. In 1990, Moore was convicted on federal charges of mail and tax fraud, extortion, and obstruction of justice. He served three years in prison. Arch Moore died in 2015 at age 91.

February 26, 1972: Coal Mining Dam Collapses in Buffalo Creek

On February 26, 1972, a coal mining dam collapsed at the head of Buffalo Creek in Logan County. Over the next three hours, 132-million gallons of black water raged down the hollow. The deluge obliterated or badly damaged 17 communities and claimed the lives of 125 people, including entire families. The disaster also injured 1000 people and left 80 percent of Buffalo Creek’s residents homeless.

The collapsed dam was owned by a division of the Pittston Coal Company. Officials with Pittston attributed the flood to heavy rains, calling it “an act of God.” However, state and federal investigations pinned the blame squarely on Pittston, saying that company officials had “shown flagrant disregard for the safety of residents.” Survivors and the victims’ family members reached an out-of-court settlement with Pittston that averaged $13,000 per person after legal fees. West Virginia filed its own suit against the company. It was settled by Governor Arch Moore before he left office in 1977.

The Buffalo Creek Flood eventually led to new state and federal laws regulating dam construction and maintenance. It remains one of the country’s worst mining-related disasters.

November 26, 1921: Publisher Ned Chilton Born

Ned Chilton was born on November 26, 1921. A liberal Democrat, Chilton served four terms in the state House of Delegates in the 1950s. He made his biggest political splash, however, after becoming publisher of the Charleston Gazette newspaper in 1961. He used the Gazette’s pages to tackle the leading progressive issues of the day, including passionate crusades against racial discrimination, censorship, the death penalty, and drunk driving.

He saved his most spirited attacks for Governor Arch Moore, who commonly referred to the Gazette as the “morning sick call.” Chilton relentlessly urged the state’s mostly Democratic voters to toss the Republican from office. Despite these efforts, Moore won three terms as governor.

Chilton targeted political corruption and cronyism at all levels of government. His efforts forced West Virginia state government to end its practice of holding secret meetings. He also pressured the State Bar and West Virginia Board of Medicine to publicly reveal complaints against lawyers and doctors. Even fellow newspaper publishers felt his wrath, as he called for more “sustained outrage” in journalism.

Ned Chilton died of a sudden heart in 1987 at the age of 65.

April 7, 1927: A. James Manchin Born in Farmington

A. James Manchin was born in Farmington on April 7, 1927. He’d become perhaps the most colorful politician in West Virginia history.

During his one term in the House of Delegates in the late ’40s, he fought for civil rights issues, which possibly led to his re-election defeat. After stepping away from government for a decade, he returned as state director of the Farm Home Administration in the ’60s.

In 1973, Governor Arch Moore named Manchin head of the Rehabilitation Environmental Action Program, known as REAP. With great fanfare, Manchin helped remove thousands of cars, appliances, and old tires from the countryside.

And he coined one of the great quotes in state history: “We must purge these proud peaks of their jumbled jungles of junkery.”

After serving two terms as secretary of state, he was elected state treasurer in 1984. After the 1987 stock market crash cost the state more than $300 million in investments, A. James Manchin was impeached and then resigned in 1989. But he made a surprise political comeback at age 71, winning three elections to the House of Delegates before his death in 2003.