Billy Edd Wheeler, who wrote countless hit songs for dozens of artists, has died at 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 at home yesterday surrounded by family,’ his family wrote on social media. ‘We love you Dad. You will be missed by so many but also forever remembered by 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 his 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 West Virginia town in 1932 to a working class family.
‘Billy Edd was raised by his mother and grew up dirt poor in the coalfields. With a rare gift for story-telling, an excess of country smarts and perseverance, Billy Edd was a true renaissance man,’ wrote the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Some of his other famous songs included ‘Coal Tattoo’ and ‘The Reverend Mr. Black.’
Kenny Rogers’ version of Wheeler’s ‘Coward of the County’ became a number 1 single when it came out in 1980. The next year it would be made into a movie also starring Kenny Rogers.
Kyle Young, the CEO 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 songs he’s written, and in 2007, he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame
‘Billy Edd Wheeler was a songwriter who could pack an entire cinematic experience into a few short minutes.
‘Billy Edd had a narrative gift that enabled him to spin a silver screen–worthy tale of long-simmering anger in ‘Coward of the County’ or a spicy story about a marriage in jeopardy that came to represent the playful, hot-blooded dynamic between Johnny and June in “Jackson.”
‘His writing 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 songs he’s written, and in 2007, he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Although he’s most known for his music, Wheeler has also written a dozen plays and has written or co-written several country humor books.
One of his most famous plays centered on the long-running and often murderous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, infamous West Virginia families in the 19th century.
The play returned this year to an amphitheater in Beckley, West Virginia, and ran until June, WVNS reported.