Country legend Billy Edd Wheeler who wrote one of Johnny Cash’s biggest hits dead at 91

Billy Edd Wheeler, who wrote countless hits for dozens of artists, has died at the age of 91.

The legendary songwriter and recording artist 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 family,” his family wrote on social media. “We love you, Dad. You will be missed by so many, but will also be remembered forever for all the gifts you gave to this world.”

During 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 co-wrote “Jackson” with Jerry Leiber in 1963, which was later sung as a duet by Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash.

Wheeler was born in 1932 in a small town in West Virginia, to a working-class family.

“Billy Edd was raised by his mother and grew up in poverty-stricken circumstances in the coalfields. With a rare gift for storytelling, a wealth of country intelligence and perseverance, Billy Edd was a true renaissance man,” wrote the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

Other well-known songs of his include ‘Coal Tattoo’ and ‘The Reverend Mr. Black.’

Kenny Rogers’ version of Wheeler’s “Coward of the County” became a number one single upon its release in 1980. It was made into a film the following year, also starring Kenny Rogers.

Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, commented on Wheeler’s gift for storytelling in a tribute he wrote especially for Wheeler.

Wheeler has won 13 awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for songs he has written, and in 2007 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame

‘Billy Edd Wheeler was a songwriter who could cram an entire cinematic experience into a few minutes.

‘Billy Edd had a gift for storytelling that allowed him to craft a film-worthy tale of long-simmering anger in ‘Coward of the County’ or a racy story of a marriage on the rocks that came to symbolize the playful, hot-blooded dynamic between Johnny and June in ‘Jackson.”

“His lyrics 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 his songwriting 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 co-authored several country humor books.

He served as a student pilot in the Navy before completing his graduate studies at Yale, where he specialized in playwriting

One of his best-known plays dealt with the long-standing and often murderous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, notorious West Virginia families in the 19th century.

The play returned to an amphitheater in Beckley, West Virginia, this year and ran through June, WVNS reported.

According to his website, Wheeler graduated from Warren Wilson Junior College in Swannanoa in 1953 and went on to earn a degree from Berea College in Kentucky.

He served as a student pilot in the Navy before completing his studies at Yale, where he specialized in playwriting.

Apparently he considered himself the “token yokel” of Yale.

Wheeler is survived by his wife Mary Mitchell Bannerman and their two children Lucy and Travis.