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Sixty-eight Berea College seniors will participate in the recognition
service for mid-year graduates on Sunday, Dec. 12. The program
will begin at 3 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel.
Candidates being recognized are expected to complete degree requirements
at the end of December 2004 or January 2005.
Billy Edd Wheeler, humorist, songwriter and novelist, will address
the candidates for graduation. He also will be awarded an honorary
Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the College. Wheeler will
perform two songs as part of his graduation address, titled "When
God Winks."
Wheeler, a Whitesville, W. Va. native and 1955 Berea College alumnus,
is the author or co-author of several books, including Laughter
In Appalachia, and Real Country
Humor--Jokes From Country Music.
He also has written 16 plays which include the long-running outdoor
historical dramas Hatfields & McCoys and Young
Abe Lincoln,
and Johnny Appleseed, which had its premier in June. He has received
13 ASCAP awards for his songs, recorded by Judy Collins, Neil Young,
Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, and more than 150 other artists
here and abroad, selling over sixty million units. He recently
was inducted into the Nashville Association of Songwriters International
Hall of Fame.
In 1970, Wheeler received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from
Berea College. Other awards include Billboard Magazine's "Pacesetter
Award” for Music and Drama.
After graduating from Berea College, Wheeler served in the Navy's
Air Force, then went on to study playwriting at Yale University’s
School of Drama.
He and his wife, Mary Mitchell Bannerman, have two children and
live in Swannanoa, N.C.
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