Randy Parton born 15 December 1953

Randy Parton (December 15, 1953 – January 21, 2021) was an American country music singer-songwriter, actor, and businessman. 

Randle Huston Parton was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the eighth of twelve children born to Avie Lee Caroline (née Owens; 1923–2003) and Robert Lee Parton Sr. (1921–2000). He was a younger brother of singer-songwriters Dolly and Stella Parton and an older brother of former actress Rachel Parton George. 

Randy had a modest country music chart presence with two Top 30 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1981, "Hold Me Like You Never Had Me" (#30) and "Shot Full of Love" (#30), plus several other charting singles like "Don't Cry Baby" (#80) and "A Stranger in Her Bed" (#92) in the early '80s, but may be best known for "Old Flames Can’t Hold A Candle To You," a chart-topping duet with his sister. He often shared stages with Dolly Parton, playing bass and guitar in her band. 

                                   

He released several singles that didn't chart as high or were non-album tracks, including "Tennessee Born" (1975) and "Roll On Eighteen Wheeler" (1982) which in 1984 was recorded by the band Alabama, and became the group's 12th straight No. 1 single. Also in 1984, Parton sang a song for the Rhinestone soundtrack; his sister Dolly starred in the film. He also played bass for his sister. He was a Dollywood fixture, connecting visitors to the musical East Tennessee family with popular live performances, including seasonal favorite "My People, My Music" at the park. He began hosting shows at Dollywood in 1986, according to Parton's post. 

Parton is also known for the theater that once bore his name in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. In 2007, he signed a deal worth over $1.5 million yearly to manage and perform in a new theater bearing his name in the Carolina Crossroads entertainment and shopping complex. 

The relationship between Parton and the city soured as the theater struggled to attract customers and questions arose concerning Parton's use of a nearly $3 million fund for personal travel and entertainment. Parton was also questioned by city leaders for unauthorized events held at the theater including a wedding reception for his daughter along with details about who would be marketing the theater. Throughout the controversy, Parton maintained that his actions were within the contract and that the theater would be successful given time. 

Parton's contract with the city was terminated on January 8, 2008, and the theater was renamed the Roanoke Rapids Theater. The city took over the theater and in July 2012 voted to allow electronic gambling to help pay expenses and possibly attract a buyer. 

Randy Parton last appeared on a album in 2020, singing with his sister on "You Are My Christmas." Dolly Parton dedicated the song to her brother, releasing it on her "A Holly Dolly Christmas" record. Randy Parton's daughter, Heidi, who also entertains at Dollywood, joined on the song. It was Randy’s last musical recording. 

Randy Parton died in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina of cancer on January 21, 2021, at age 67. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, The Tennessean, Billboard & Music Row) 

 

Phineas Newborn Jr. born 14 December 1931

Phineas Newborn Jr. (December 14, 1931 – May 26, 1989) was an American jazz pianist, whose principal influences were Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Bud Powell. 

Newborn was born in Whiteville, Tennessee, and came from a musical family: his father, Phineas Newborn Sr., was a drummer in blues bands, and his younger brother, Calvin, a jazz guitarist. He studied piano as well as trumpet, and tenor and baritone saxophone. 

Before moving on to work with Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, and others, Newborn first played in an R&B band led by his father on drums, with his brother Calvin on guitar, Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch and future Hi Records star Willie Mitchell. The group was the house band at the now famous Plantation Inn Club in West Memphis, Arkansas, from 1947 to 1951, and recorded as B. B. King's band on his first recordings in 1949, as well as the Sun Records sessions in 1950. They left West Memphis in 1951 to tour with Jackie Brenston as the "Delta Cats" in support of the record "Rocket 88", recorded by Sam Phillips and considered by many to be the first ever rock & roll record (it was the first Billboard No. 1 record for Chess Records). 

Among his earliest recordings, from the early 1950s, are those for Sun Records with blues harmonica player Big Walter Horton. From 1956, Newborn began to perform in New York City, recording his first album as a leader in that year, Here Is Phineas for Atlantic Records. His trios and quartets at that time included his brother Calvin on guitar, bassists Oscar Pettiford, George Joyner and drummers Kenny Clarke and Philly Joe Jones. 

                                   

Newborn created enough interest internationally to work as a solo pianist in Stockholm in 1958 and in Rome the following year. He drew much critical acclaim, for both his leonine technique and meticulously artful playing at any tempo. The most often-noted feature of Newborn's playing is fast-tempo parallel improvisation, two octaves apart in the manner of Oscar Peterson, which requires great ambidexterity. 

On March 16, 1960, 29-year-old Newborn replaced Thelonious Monk and performed "It's All Right with Me" on the ABC-TV series Music for a Spring Night. Newborn moved to Los Angeles that year, and recorded a sequence of piano trio albums for the Contemporary label. Critics often noted his playing style as being too technical, and Newborn developed emotional problems as a result. He was admitted to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for some periods, and suffered a nervous breakdown related to conflicts with a record label during his career. Newborn later sustained a hand injury which hindered his playing. 

Newborn's later work was intermittent due to ongoing health problems. This is most true of the period from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s when he faded from view, underappreciated and under recorded. He made a partial comeback in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although this return ultimately failed to benefit his financial situation. 

He died on May 26, 1989 · Memphis, Tennessee from lung cancer and is buried in Memphis National Cemetery. His work, however, continues to inspire new generations of jazz pianists and he is still renowned among many critics who have rediscovered his genius.According to jazz historian Nat Hentoff, Newborn's deatht spurred the 1989 founding of the Jazz Foundation of America, a group dedicated to helping with the medical bills and other financial needs of retired jazz greats. In the early 1990s the four-player Contemporary Piano Ensemble was formed by pianists Harold Mabern, James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, and Geoff Keezer to pay tribute to Newborn; it recorded two albums and toured internationally. 

Despite his setbacks, many of Newborn's records, such as Phineas' Rainbow, The Great Jazz Piano of Phineas Newborn Jr., and Harlem Blues remain highly regarded. Jazz commentator Scott Yanow referred to Newborn as "one of the most technically skilled and brilliant pianists in jazz." Evidence of his technical prowess can be heard on tracks such as "Sometimes I'm Happy", from the album Look Out – Phineas Is Back!, on which Newborn performs extended, complex, and brisk solos with both hands in unison. Leonard Feather said of him, "In his prime, he was one of the three greatest jazz pianists of all time." Oscar Peterson said, "If I had to choose the best all-around pianist of anyone who's followed me chronologically, unequivocally ... I would say Phineas Newborn, Jr." 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Memphis Music Hall of Fame)

 

Buck White born 13 December 1930

Buck White (December 13, 1930 - January 13, 2025) was a legendary American country and bluegrass musician, patriarch of the Grammy-winning family group The Whites. 

Born in Oklahoma City to Edward Shelton and Lucille White he was raised in Texas, Buck grew up within a rich musical environment. As a young child, he changed his name to Buck to be like the cowboy actor, Buck Jones. He grew up listening to the radio and he loved all genres of music. He enjoyed going to the movies watching Gene Autry and especially Roy Rogers with the Sons of the Pioneers. He began playing piano and mandolin as a teenager, and following high school he performed in various honky tonk country bands in Texas and Oklahoma, and even went on to play back up for some of the greats of that era, such as Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. 

Sharon, Cheryl, Buck and Pat White

While in Abilene, he met his future brother-in-law, Bob Goza, who introduced him to the love of his life, Patty Goza whom he married in 1952 and moved to Wichita Falls, Texas where he began working as a plumber and playing music on the side. In 1962, Buck and Patty moved the family to the country in Arkansas. For over twenty-five years, his full-time trade was plumbing. In September of 1971, he and his family moved to Nashville and settled in Hendersonville. He continued to work as a plumber several years before finally becoming a full-time musician. 

It’s when Buck White’s daughters Sharon White (born December 17, 1953) and Cheryl White (born January 27, 1955) showed early promise in music that Buck White started to take it more seriously as a career. Buck White and The Down Home Folks formed in 1972 and did well, although Pat retired from the group the following year. Buck recorded a solo album for Sugar Hill in 1979 called More Pretty Girls Than One. But it’s when The Whites formed officially in the early 1980’s as a family band signed to Curb Records that things started to click. 

                                   

The Whites earned multiple Top 10 hits through memorable songs like “Give Me Back That Old Familiar Feeling,” “Pins And Needles,” You Put The Blue In Me,” "If It Ain’t Love (Let’s Leave It Alone),” and “When The New Wears Off of Our Love” among others. Buck White’s mature age didn’t hold the group back at all. It gave The Whites a venerated and wholesome appeal. 

Just as much as Buck White and The Whites are revered for their songs, they’re perhaps best known for their collaborations, as well as their long-standing membership to the Grand Ole Opry, and their countless appearances on the program. The Whites were signed on as Grand Ole Opry members in 1984, and have been Opry mainstays ever since, including Buck White making appearances into his 90s. 

Daughter Sharon White married Ricky Skaggs in 1981, and this commenced a relationship where The Whites would regularly perform in Ricky’s band, and Skaggs would regularly perform with The Whites, including collaborations on songs, albums, and on the Grand Ole Opry regularly. Sharon White and Ricky Skaggs minted the hit song “Love Can’t Ever Get Better Than This” in 1987, and in 2008, The Whites won a Grammy for the album Salt of the Earth in collaboration with Skaggs. 

Buck White and The Whites were nominated numerous times by both the CMA and ACM for Vocal Group of the Year during the ’80s decade. But perhaps their biggest recognition came through their contribution to the Grammy Album of the Year-winning soundtrack to the acclaimed movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou in 2001. Their rendition of “Keep on the Sunny Side” introduced The Whites to an entirely new generation and audience. . They were also part of the accompanying musical event at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, which was released as the documentary film and album Down From the Mountain. 

The Whites are members of the Texas Music Hall of Fame, and celebrated 40 years at the Grand Ole Opry on March 2, 2024. That was Buck’s last official performance. Father and grandfather of The Whites, the oldest member of the Grand Ole Opry, and a grand patriarch of country music passed away peacefully on January 13, 2025, at the age of 94. The group entered a short hiatus after his death, but returned to performing on the Opry in August 2025. 

(Edited from Saving Country Music, Wikipedia & RFD-TV) 

Toshiko Akiyoshi born 12 December 1929

Toshiko Akiyoshi (born 12 December 1929) is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader who has  cemented her place as one of the most important jazz musicians of the twentieth century. 

Toshiko Akiyoshi was born in Darien, Manchuria. Historically an area of China, many world powers fought to control Manchuria during the twentieth century. From 1932-1945, the Japanese held Manchuria under colonial control. At the end of World War II, the Japanese in Manchuria, including Akiyoshi’s family, were forced out. 

The family moved back to occupied Japan, where they experienced the hardships of postwar life. In an interview, Akiyoshi noted that when the family came back, her “parents lost everything.” While Akiyoshi had been able to play piano in Manchuria, her parents were now unable to provide her with an instrument. Since Japan was still under occupation, there were many clubs that catered to both soldiers and the local community. The clubs needed musicians to entertain not only the foreign troops but the Japanese who wanted to dance and listen to music. To keep playing piano, the teenaged Akiyoshi got her first job playing in the clubs and in small combos. By 1951, she was playing piano professionally and leading her own jazz group. 

In 1952, pianist Oscar Peterson discovered Akiyoshi while he was on a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan. After hearing her play in a Tokyo nightclub, Peterson persuaded producer Norman Granz to record her on his Verve label. This recording became Akiyoshi’s big break. After this opportunity, Akiyoshi came to the United States in 1956 to begin studying at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. With her enrollment, she became the first Japanese musician at the school. 

                                   

In 1959, she moved to New York City and established a reputation as a fine “bebop” (a style of jazz popularized in the 1940s in the U.S.) player. She played in clubs such as Birdland, Village Gate, Five Spot, and Half Note. She remembered facing discrimination in the jazz world because she was a woman and Asian. In an interview, Akiyoshi recalled hearing people ask “’Japanese play jazz, really?’” and, when it came to her being female, she described it as a “‘Really, really?’ kind of thing.’” 

Charlie Mariano

In 1959, she also married her first husband, saxophonist Charlie Mariano; the two formed a quartet. In the 1960s, Akiyoshi continued making her mark on the jazz world. She began showing her talent as a composer-arranger for big bands and worked with Charles Mingus in 1962. 

By 1973, Akiyoshi had moved to Los Angelas with her second husband, saxophonist, and flutist Lew Tabackin. That same year, Akiyoshi formed her first jazz orchestra—the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. Tabackin, who was playing with The Tonight Show band, helped fill the 16-piece orchestra with some of the best studio musicians in town. 

Lew Tabackin

The Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra went on to have great success, winning the DownBeat Critic’s Poll and best jazz album of the year for Long Yellow Road by Stereo Review in 1976. Akiyoshi also began to branch out musically. Since all of the saxophone players could also play flute, Akiyoshi thought she could write a woodwind section for the band. In the 1970s, she also began introducing Japanese themes and instruments into her compositions and arrangements. All became her trademarks. 

In 1982, Akiyoshi and her husband moved back to New York and restarted their band with New York musicians. They continued to enjoy critical success. The band debuted at Carnegie Hall as part of the 1983 Kool Jazz Festival and went on to record 22 albums and receive 14 Grammy nominations. Akiyoshi became the first woman to place first in the Best Arranger and Composer category in the DownBeat Readers’ Poll. Among her other notable honors are the Shijahosho (1999, from the Emperor of Japan); the Japan Foundation Award, Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosetta (2004, from the Emperor of Japan); the Asahi Award (2005, from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper); and NEA Jazz master, American jazz’s highest honor (2007). Her autobiography, Life with Jazz (1996), is in its fifth printing in Japanese. 

In 2003, Akiyoshi disbanded her orchestra to focus on piano. She said in an interview, “it has been 60 years since I discovered jazz and made it my lifetime work. I am so gratified to be recognized for my endeavors especially my infusing of Japanese culture into the jazz world, making it ever more universal.” 

Today in her mid 90’s she is still actively touring with  recent mentions from 2024 and 2025 highlighting her continued presence in the jazz scene. 

(Edited from National Women’s History Museum article)

  

Carole Simpson born circa 1928

Carole Simpson (born c. 1928 – 25 January 2013) was an American pop and jazz musician (vocals, piano). A gorgeous, glamorous blonde, she had an intimate singing style not far from June Christy and a pianistic approach that borrowed most heavily from George Shearing and Erroll Garner. 

Carole Simpson was born in Anna, Illinois, began piano lessons at five, voice lessons at twelve. She started as a piano cocktail singer at Hotel Wisconsin in Milwaukee, until she joined Billy May s band as a featured vocalist in 1950 but never recorded. Then came several long and sometimes weary years of clubbing it around the country, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, never truly deciding whether she preferred singing or playing piano. 

Eventually, she impressed Tutti Camarata when he heard Carole sing and brought her to the attention of Dave Cavanaugh at Capitol Records, who recorded her first album in the summer of 1957 All About Carol, with pop standards such as "Oh! Look at Me Now", "There Will Never Be Another You" and "You Make Me Feel So Young". The arrangers and directors of the studio session were Eddie Cano and Lennie Niehaus. 

                                   

After listening to the album, Steve Allen booked her for his TV show, and in 1960, as soon as he knew Carol s contract with Capitol was over, invited her to record a selection of his compositions for her second LP, Singin' and Swingin' issued on the Tops label. These included  "This Could Be the Start of Something Big," the theme song of Allen's NBC talk show, and "Oh What a Night for Love," a song that was also recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, and Frances Wayne. 

She married drummer Billy Stafford, with whom she had children. Apparently, motherhood took her out of the full-time club work world, and her musical life revolved more around playing in churches and directing choirs. In that community, she was known as Carolyn Stafford. In 1990, she recorded the live album Live (And Otherwise), a recording from the Vine Street Bar and Grill in Los Angeles. As Carolyn Stafford, she also conducted choirs and sang in churches. Due to a stroke, she no longer performed as a singer in 1999, but as a pianist; among other things, she played on the West Coast with guitarist Skip Heller after the turn of the millennium. As she got older, she played fewer jazz jobs. 

It was Reno where she ended up, and she died there of natural causes on January 25, 2013. There was no obit in the Los Angeles Times, nor was there a big musical tribute at the Musicians Union building just down the street from the big round Capitol Tower where she made her great record. There was a mention on a website that was very light on biographical data. It did mention she passed while under hospice care. 

(Edited from Wikipedia &, All About Jazz)

Don Sebesky born 10 December 1937

Donald Sebesky (December 10, 1937 – April 29, 2023) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz trombonist. He was a multi-instrumentalist and could play a number of other instruments: keyboards, electric piano, organ, accordion, and clavinet. He was best known as house arranger for many of producer Creed Taylor's Verve, A&M, and CTI productions and his arrangements were usually among the classiest in his field, reflecting a solid knowledge of the orchestra and drawing variously from big-band jazz, rock, ethnic music, classical music of all eras, and even the avant-garde for ideas. 

Donald Jjohn Sebesky was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. His father Alexander, was a labourer in a steel cable factory and his mother Eleanor was a homemaker. At the age of eight he started learning the accordion, and soon started learning piano too, and in high school he switched to the trombone to get into the marching band. Then he began commuting into New York from New Jersey to study with Warren Covington at the Manhattan School of Music, but left in the late 50’s before graduating to pursue a career as a trombonist, playing in the bands of Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, Tommy Dorsey, Warren Covington, Maynard Ferguson and Stan Kenton. 

In 1960 he began devoting himself primarily to arranging and conducting; one of his best-known arrangements was for Wes Montgomery's 1965 album Bumpin'. Other credits include George Benson's The Shape of Things to Come, Paul Desmond's From the Hot Afternoon and Freddie Hubbard's First Light. His song "Memphis Two-Step" was the title track of the Herbie Mann 1971 album of the same name. 

                                    

Sebesky worked with such orchestras as the London Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Pops, The New York Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic of London, and the Toronto Symphony. He once cited Bartok as his favorite composer, but one also hears a lot of Stravinsky in his work. He was nominated for thirty-one Grammy Awards and won three Grammys in the 1990s: Best Instrumental Arrangement for "Waltz for Debby" (1998) and for "Chelsea Bridge" (1999), and Best Instrumental Composition for "Joyful Noise Suite" (1999). Twice, he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations, for Parade (1999), and Kiss Me, Kate (2000). Sebesky won a Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for the revival of Kiss Me, Kate (2000). 

Sebesky with Herbie Hancock

In 1975, Sebesky wrote The Contemporary Arranger, which was published with three accompanying LP phonograph records. His Broadway theater credits included Porgy and Bess (London production by Trevor Nunn), Sinatra at the Palladium, Sweet Charity, Kiss Me, Kate, Bells Are Ringing, Flower Drum Song, Parade, The Life, Cyrano, The Goodbye Girl, The Will Rogers Follies, Sinatra at Radio City, Pal Joey, Come Fly Away, Baby It's You!, and Honeymoon In Vegas.

Sebesky's work for television garnered three Emmy nominations, for Allegra's Window on Nickelodeon, The Edge of Night on ABC, and Guiding Light on CBS. He also composed film scores that include The People Next Door (1970), F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles' (1974), and The Rosary Murders (1987). Sebesky has also created the music for many well known commercials.  Among the companies he has represented are:  Corning (Clio Award), Hanes, Hallmark, Dodge Trucks, General Electric (Clio Award), Hershey's, Cheerios, Calvin Klein (Clio Award), Nike, Oil of Olay, Pepsi and Kodak. 

Sebesky arranged for hundreds of artists, including Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, John Pizzarelli, Michael Buble, Liza Minnelli, Seal, and Prince. As a recording artist, Sebesky's work includes nine recordings under his own name, all of which were GRAMMY nominated.  Included are his 1973 release Giant Box, (which hit #16 on the U.S. Billboard Jazz Albums chart), Rape of El Morro, Full Cycle, Moving Lines, Symphonic Sondheim, I Remember Bill (1999 GRAMMY Award), and Joyful Noise (winner of two GRAMMY Awards in 2000). 

Don Sebesky married Janina Serden in 1986, and had two daughters with her; Olivia and Elizabeth. He had two sons from a previous marriage, Ken and Kevin, and two daughters, Ali and Cymbaline. 

Sebesky died from complications of dementia at a nursing home in Maplewood, New Jersey on April 29, 2023, at the age of 85.    (Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic, donsebesky.com)

Billy Edd Wheeler born 9 December 1932

Billy Edd Wheeler (December 9, 1932 – September 16, 2024) was an American songwriter known for several major country hits that showed the influence of the folk-pop music with which he began his career. He was also a versatile performer who notched hits of his own, recorded a series of innovative albums in the 1960s, and extended his creative activities into poetry, painting, nonfiction writing, and acting. 

Wheeler was born in Boone Country, West Virginia. He attended Warren Wilson College in North Carolina and Berea College in Kentucky, where he earned a B.A. in 1955. After college, he worked as a magazine editor and then served two years as a Navy pilot. He taught at Berea for several years, performing folk music on the side and at one point landing a pops concert slot with the Lexington Symphony Orchestra (now the Lexington Philharmonic). 

Spurred by the attention, he recorded country and bluegrass songs (later collected on two LP albums) on the Monitor label, beginning in 1959. He made some appearances on The Today Show and other network television programs and performed on the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia. Wheeler then moved east, studying playwriting at the Yale Drama School for one year and trying his luck as a playwright in New York. (By 2003 he had written 16 plays.) He also began writing songs, two of which, "The Reverend Mr. Black" and "Desert Pete," became pop hits for the Kingston Trio. "The Reverend Mr. Black," a vivid portrait of a country preacher, was later covered by Bill Anderson and other country artists. Hank Snow ("Blue Roses") and Rex Allen were among the country singers who recorded early Wheeler songs, but he also placed songs with folk artists such as Judy Collins and Richie Havens. 

                                   

In 1963, Wheeler began recording more or less as a folk artist for Kapp Records, but as that New York-based label soon made a move into country music, Wheeler found the transition a natural one. The following year, he made his debut on the charts with "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back," a satirical lament for the vanishing outhouses of the rural south that hit number three on the country charts. No more hits were forthcoming, but Wheeler's albums on Kapp fell well outside the '60s country mainstream; 1967's Paper Birds showed the influence of psychedelia. 

Wheeler continued to circulate songs in Nashville, and several of them were recorded; Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash reached number two in 1967 with Wheeler's Bickersons-like dialogue song "Jackson." Cash also recorded Wheeler's torrid love song "Blistered." Wheeler found his own way back to the charts one year later, though "I Ain't the Worryin' Kind" stalled at number 63 (it was covered by pop singer O.C. Smith). He signed with United Artists in 1969 and had minor success with "West Virginia Woman" and "Fried Chicken and a Country Tune." 

During the '70s, he recorded for RCA Victor and Capitol but charted only occasionally. Nevertheless, his songwriting provided a consistent income. Elvis Presley had a Top Five hit with Wheeler's "It's Midnight," and in 1980 he hit it big when he and Roger Bowling penned Kenny Rogers' smash hit "Coward of the County." It spent three weeks at number one on the country charts. By the early 2000s, Wheeler estimated the total sales of recordings containing his songs at 57 million units, with various Rogers compilations constituting a sizable portion of that total. 

With his wife and two children, Wheeler moved back to Swannanoa, NC, where he had attended college. He continued to write poetry, having published his first volume, Song of a Woods Colt, in 1969, and accelerated his playwriting activities. Wheeler has also authored a compilation of Appalachian humor and has created paintings in a folk-art style. He continued to write songs and to perform at festivals, played the banjo on several bluegrass albums, held songwriting workshops in his home, and recorded occasionally. Meanwhile, Kapp, United Artists, RCA and other labels continued to release charting singles by Wheeler throughout the 1970s. He issued 15 albums between 1961 and 2006. 

Wheeler was also inducted into the Nashville Association of Songwriters International Hall of Fame and has earned Distinguished Alumnus awards from both Warran Wilson and Berea. According to his website, Berea College conferred Wheeler with an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 2004. He was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2011. He issued his memoir Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout in 2018, which contained an appreciation written by his longtime friend Janis Ian. 

Billy Edd Wheeler died peacefully at his home in Swannanoa, North Carolina on September 16, 2024, at the age of 91.

(Edited from AllMusic &WRTF.com)