The Boone County native was best known for writing several hit songs including “Jackson” for Johnny Cash and June Carter as well as “Coward of the County” for Kenny Rogers.
Musician and songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler died Monday at his home in Swannanoa, North Carolina. He was 91.
The Boone County native was best known for writing several hit songs including “Jackson” for Johnny Cash and June Carter as well as “Coward of the County” for Kenny Rogers.
Born on December 9, 1932, in Whitesville, Wheeler started writing and performing songs when he was just a teenager. He was inducted into the inaugural class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007. He was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000 and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
According to an obituary in the Asheville Citizen-Times, Wheeler moved from Boone County to North Carolina to attend the high school division of Warren Wilson College in 1951. After graduating from Warren Wilson, he attended Berea College in Kentucky as well as Yale Drama School to study playwriting.
He also found success as a humorist, painter, poet and playwright, and his Hatfields and McCoys play is performed by Theatre West Virginia each year.
Wheeler published ten books of poetry, fiction and humor during his career.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Mary Bannerman Wheeler, his daughter Lucy Wheeler and his son, Travis Wheeler. He is also survived by his brother, Robert Stewart.
Documentary filmmaker and West Virginia native Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee whose most famous works skewered America’s food industry and who notably ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.
NEW YORK (AP) — Documentary filmmaker and West Virginia native Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee whose most famous works skewered America’s food industry and who notably ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.
Spurlock died Thursday in New York from complications of cancer, according to a statement issued Friday by his family.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” Craig Spurlock, who worked with him on several projects, said in the statement. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas, and generosity. The world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”
Spurlock made a splash in 2004 with his groundbreaking film “Super Size Me,” which was nominated for an Academy Award. The film chronicled the detrimental physical and psychological effects of Spurlock eating only McDonald’s food for 30 days. He gained about 25 pounds, saw a spike in his cholesterol and lost his sex drive.
“Everything’s bigger in America,” he said in the film. “We’ve got the biggest cars, the biggest houses, the biggest companies, the biggest food, and finally: the biggest people.”
In one scene, Spurlock showed kids a photo of George Washington and none recognized the Founding Father. But they all instantly knew the mascots for Wendy’s and McDonald’s.
The film grossed more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget and preceded the release of Eric Schlosser’s influential “Fast Food Nation,” which accused the industry of being bad for the environment and rife with labor issues.
FILE – Morgan Spurlock poses at the Los Angeles premiere of his film “Super Size Me,” Thursday night, April 22, 2004, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.
Photo Credit: Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo
Spurlock returned in 2017 with “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” — a sober look at an industry that processes nine billion animals a year in America. He focused on two issues: chicken farmers stuck in a peculiar financial system and the attempt by fast-food chains to deceive customers into thinking they’re eating healthier.
“We’re at an amazing moment in history from a consumer standpoint where consumers are starting to have more and more power,” he told The Associated Press in 2019. “It’s not about return for the shareholders. It’s about return for the consumers.”
Spurlock was a gonzo-like filmmaker who leaned into the bizarre and ridiculous. His stylistic touches included zippy graphics and amusing music, blending a Michael Moore-ish camera-in-your-face style with his own sense of humor and pathos.
“I wanted to be able to lean into the serious moments. I wanted to be able to breathe in the moments of levity. We want to give you permission to laugh in the places where it’s really hard to laugh,” he told the AP.
After he exposed the fast-food and chicken industries, there was an explosion in restaurants stressing freshness, artisanal methods, farm-to-table goodness and ethically sourced ingredients. But nutritionally not much had changed.
“There has been this massive shift and people say to me, ‘So has the food gotten healthier?’ And I say, ‘Well, the marketing sure has,’” he said.
Not all his work dealt with food. Spurlock made documentaries about the boy band One Direction and the geeks and fanboys at Comic-Con. One of his films looked at life behind bars at the Henrico County Jail in Virginia.
With 2008’s “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?” Spurlock went on a global search to find the al-Qaida leader, who was killed in 2011. In “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” Spurlock tackled questions of product placement, marketing and advertising.
“Being aware is half the battle, I think. Literally knowing all the time when you’re being marketed to is a great thing,” Spurlock told AP at the time. “A lot of people don’t realize it. They can’t see the forest for the trees.”
“Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” was to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 but it was shelved at the height of the #MeToo movement when Spurlock came forward to detail his own history of sexual misconduct.
He confessed that he had been accused of rape while in college and had settled a sexual harassment case with a female assistant. He also admitted to cheating on numerous partners. “I am part of the problem,” he wrote.
“For me, there was a moment of kind of realization — as somebody who is a truth-teller and somebody who has made it a point of trying to do what’s right — of recognizing that I could do better in my own life. We should be able to admit we were wrong,” he told the AP.
Spurlock grew up in Beckley, West Virginia. His mother was an English teacher who he remembered would correct his work with a red pen. He graduated with a BFA in film from New York University in 1993.
He is survived by two sons — Laken and Kallen; his mother Phyllis Spurlock; father Ben; brothers Craig and Barry; and former spouses Alexandra Jamieson and Sara Bernstein, the mothers of his children.
In walked Travis Stimeling. Burly and ebullient, Stimeling grew up playing guitar in church as a child in Buckhannon, West Virginia, then went on to study trombone in college. That eventually led to a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a teaching gig at Millikin University in Illinois.
This story originally aired in the March 10, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.
Sophia Enriquez didn’t know it at the time, but one music history class in her freshman year of college would change the entire direction of her life.
It was 2013, and the music department at West Virginia University (WVU) was looking to hire another professor. As part of the interview process, the university wanted finalists for the position to teach a sample lecture. A “job talk” in academia lingo.
“I was in the guinea pig class that they gave their job talk to,” Enriquez said.
In walked Travis Stimeling. Burly and ebullient, Stimeling grew up playing guitar in church as a child in Buckhannon, West Virginia, then went on to study trombone in college. That eventually led to a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a teaching gig at Millikin University in Illinois.
Now Stimeling was looking to come back home.
“They gave a job talk for music history class and talked about country music and Taylor Swift. And that had everyone so excited,” Enriquez said. “So that’s how I met Travis.”
Stimeling, whose pronouns were they/them, got the job. It was the beginning of what would be an extremely fruitful period, both for Stimeling and WVU’s music program.
Over the next decade, Stimeling established Appalachian music and Appalachian studies minors at the university. They published reams of articles and a shelf full of books. That includes co-authoring the autobiography of legendary session musician Charlie McCoy, and compiling a book of interviews with modern West Virginia songwriters.
Nashville Cats, one of Stimeling’s many books, is about the backing musicians who made Nashville into “Music City.”
Photo Credit: Zack Harold/ West Virginia Public Broadcasting
All these books and articles established Stimeling as a leading scholar in the study of traditional Appalachian music. But Stimeling wasn’t only a scholar — they were a musician, too. So they founded the WVU Bluegrass and Old-Time Band in addition to their academic pursuits.
Enriquez joined the band in her junior year. She originally came to WVU to study orchestral trumpet, but caught the bluegrass bug from some friends.
“I just walked right into Travis’s office one day and said ‘I think I want to do this,’” she said. “They said ‘OK, well sing me something.’”
Enriquez didn’t really consider herself a singer. But soon she was belting out the old Flatt and Scruggs tune “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” with Stimeling backing her up on flat top guitar.
“So then they’re like, ‘OK you’re in,’” she said.
But Stimeling didn’t just help Enqiruez find her voice onstage. When she was nearing the end of her undergrad, she was unsure what to do next. One day, Stimeling sat her down and laid out the options.
“They said ‘I don’t think you’d realize you’d be really great at doing what I do,’” Enriquez said.
Enriquez went on to earn a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. On the day she received her doctorate, she received a voicemail from Stimeling.
“Dr. Enriquez, this is Dr. Stimeling, calling on important doctor business,” they said. “But really, congratulations. I’m just so dang proud of you, so I thought I’d call and wish it to you directly. Looking forward to celebrating with you the next time we’re together. Talk to you soon. Bye.”
Enriquez said Stimeling referred to themselves as her “academic papa.”
“I know they played that role for a lot of other people. A lot of my close friends, we were all mentees of Travis’ at some point,” she said.
Another of Stimeling’s many academic offspring was Mary Linscheid.
Linscheid grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, the child of two classical musicians. She began studying classical violin at the age of five. But she fell in love with old-time and bluegrass music as a tween.
In eighth grade, Linscheid made a fateful trip to WVU’s Mountainlair Student Union to see the university’s bluegrass band perform.
“So I graduated high school and applied to WVU — that’s the only school I applied for because I knew I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “I wanted to be in the bluegrass band. That was one of my top reasons for going.”
Stimeling, second from right, and the WVU Bluegrass and Old-Time Band pose with WVU President Gordon Gee, center.
Photo Courtesy of Mary Linscheid
Linscheid ended up in Stimeling’s Appalachian music and Appalachian studies minors, and she joined the bluegrass band. And like Enriquez, it was in that band that Linscheid found her voice.
“Travis actually got me singing. Before college I would never sing, especially in public. I went to church and everything, and I lip-sang,” she said. “But Travis was like, ‘If you’re going to be in the bluegrass band, everybody has to sing.’”
Linscheid started writing songs, compiling enough to record her debut album, A Place to Grow Old, in 2022. Stimeling produced that project and played and sang backup on several tracks.
“Travis was always my first listener. My first reader of anything,” Linscheid said.
Stimeling and Linscheid performing together.
Photo Courtesy of Mary Linscheid
The two became close friends and bandmates outside the university. They first performed together in a square dance group. Recently, Linscheid and Stimeling had started playing gigs as a duo. They had their first big performance last summer, at Jerry Run Summer Theater in Webster County.
“Travis just seemed like they were finally free in their music and ready to take off with that and go in a whole different direction with their life,” Linscheid said. “They were really excited about this next phase of their life.”
Stimeling and Linscheid were set to go into the studio to record a duet album but ended up postponing the session at the last minute. Then, just a week later, Stimeling was gone. They died unexpectedly in their home on Nov. 14, 2023.
Now, instead of recording an album, Linscheid was left to organize a memorial service. She knew she would need to include Ginny Hawker on the set list. Hawker is an expert in the old-time Primitive Baptist style of singing, so Linscheid asked her to lead the crowd in “Amazing Grace” — sung in the call-and-response style of the Primitive Baptists.
Hawker doesn’t remember exactly how she and Stimeling became friends.
“Our paths keep crossing,” she said.
Ginny Hawker (left) and Mary Linscheid sing from the Primitive Baptist hymnbook in Hawker’s Elkins, West Virginia home.
Photo Credit: Jennie Williams/West Virginia Folklife Program
Stimeling became fascinated by Hawker’s style of singing and the two were beginning a formal apprenticeship.
“I think we were going, Dec. 10. We were supposed to go to a Primitive Baptist church in Clay County and just listen,” Hawker said.
As they dove into the repertoire of the Primitive Baptist church, Hawker and Stimeling came to make a vow. Whichever of them died first, the other would sing the hymn “Dear Friends Farewell” at the other’s funeral.
Hawker didn’t think about her promise as Linscheid was preparing the setlist for the memorial service. She never imagined she would have to keep her end of the bargain. She assumed it would be Stimeling, singing at her funeral.
But as she sat there, listening as the WVU Bluegrass Band finish up their set with songs like “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and other classic country songs Stimeling loved — Hawker remembered.
She climbed back onstage, stepped up to the mic and kept her promise to her friend:
“Dear friends, farewell, I do you tell, Since you and I must part; I go away and here you stay, But still we’re joined in heart.”
——
This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.
The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.
Senior Status Judge Robert B. Stone passed away on Monday. He served as a circuit judge in Monongalia County for 24 years and was a senior status judge for almost 15 years.
Senior Status Judge Robert B. Stone passed away on Monday. He served as a circuit judge in Monongalia County for 24 years and was a senior status judge for almost 15 years.
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Justice John Hutchison said the long-time chief circuit judge was a quiet leader and a consensus builder.
“If there was a dispute or a disagreement, he was the guy that sat down and talked to both sides and tried to get consensus,” Hutchinson said. “So the West Virginia Circuit Judicial Association could move forward on whatever goals were on the table or on being dealt with. He was an unbelievable teacher.”
Supreme Court Justice William Wooton said Stone’s positive influence went statewide.
“Judge Bob Stone was widely known in West Virginia’s judicial community and highly respected for his scholarship, fairness and unfailing courtesy and politeness,” Wooten said. “His passing is a great loss to our entire state, and especially to Monongalia County. His friends and family have my deepest sympathy.”
Hutchison called Stone a forward thinker who used his rich knowledge of the law to improve the overall system of judging.
“He always had good comments to make and good suggestions on how to improve rules of criminal procedure, rules of civil procedure, the trial court rules, all those rules having to deal with judging at the circuit level. He had great suggestions. He was a student of the law behind those rules,’ Hutchison said.
Judge Stone was born in Morgantown in 1943. He graduated from Morgantown High School in 1961, received a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University in 1965 and a law degree from West Virginia University College of Law in 1968.
After graduating from law school, he was a law clerk in the late 1960s for U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Maxwell. He then practiced law in the family firm Stone & Stone and served as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Monongalia County in the early 1980s.
Stone was appointed to the bench by then-governor Arch Moore in 1985, and was elected in 1986, 1992 and 2000. He served as chief judge for several years before deciding not to run for re-election in 2008. He retired in December 2008.
Stone held all positions in the West Virginia Judicial Association, including president from October 1996 to October 1997. He was a teaching judge with the judicial association and the West Virginia State Bar and was an adjunct lecturer at West Virginia University College of Law.
Hutchison said Stone was a driving force, especially in times of judicial upheaval, ensuring that at the circuit court level, things were going where they needed to go.
“He was one of the guys, whenever all the uproar was taking place, quietly behind the scenes trying to make sure that the circuit judges did what they needed to do,” Hutchison said. “He was the kind of guy that tried to get rid of the waves that were floating around. He tried to smooth things out. That was Bob. He will be missed. My condolences to his family and friends.”
Stone and his wife Susanne had six children. He was 79 years old.
An online and phone funeral obituary scam is preying on West Virginians in the throes of bereavement.
An online and phone funeral obituary scam is preying on West Virginians in the throes of bereavement.
West Virginia Board of Funeral Service Examiners President Gene Fahey has warned the state’s 500 or so funeral directors to alert families to the scam.
Fahey said the scammers begin by looking up obituary listings on funeral home websites. Then, using a staff name from that website, they google the next of kin and call them asking for money and credit card information before they can proceed with the funeral arrangements.
“When you make arrangements at a funeral home, many people have never done it in their life,” Fahey said. “Often, they’re not sure what the process is. But unless there is a person who is doing this from a distance, meaning that they are out of the country or out of town, and they’re trying to make some arrangements via the internet, most families meet with a funeral director in person.”
The targeted victims are surviving spouses or the elderly.
“They may have never gone through this process in their life and they’re extremely vulnerable,” Fahey said. “It’s really sickening that someone in this world would try to exploit their vulnerability.”
Fahey said at least two West Virginia families have received these scam calls with more happening in neighboring states.
“Fortunately, both of those West Virginia families immediately called the funeral home and reported what had happened,” Fahey said. “That gave us the heads up to make sure that we get the word out so that we can let families know that funeral homes are saying that this is a potential scam that’s going on. Please do not fall for it.”
Fahey said most funeral arrangements are made face to face at the funeral home.
“They discuss all the arrangements, they discuss different options, discuss the options for payment,” he said. “They never would call and demand payment without the family being aware that a call was going to be taking place. It would not happen in this profession.”
Billy Wayne Bailey Jr., was appointed to the West Virginia Senate in 1991 as a Democrat and was elected to that seat in 1992 and again in 1996, 2000, 2004. He served as the Senate Majority Whip and served on numerous committees.
Billy Wayne Bailey Jr., was born June 7, 1957, in Bluefield, in Mercer County.
He was appointed to the West Virginia Senate in 1991 as a Democrat and was elected to that seat in 1992 and again in 1996, 2000 and 2004. He served as the Senate Majority Whip and served on numerous committees.
Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, remembered his former colleague fondly.
“I’m saddened by the news of the passing of Senator Bailey, who welcomed me to the West Virginia Legislature when I became a Delegate in 2003,” Blair said. “We shared many conversations, challenges and most of all, our laughter. I will personally miss my friend Billy Wayne and my prayers are with his family during this time of great sorrow.”
In 2008, he chose not to run for re-election. He ran unsuccessfully for Secretary of State instead.
During the Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin administration, in 2011, Bailey joined the West Virginia Department of Veterans Affairs as deputy secretary under former Secretary Keith Gwinn. He served in that role until 2019.
From 1978 to 1984, he served in the 1092nd Combat Engineers Battalion of the National Guard, then spent 15 years with the Air National Guard’s 130th Airlift Wing.
He was a graduate of Herndon High School, attended Morris Harvey College, now the University of Charleston, and Marshall University.
