On this West Virginia Morning, we remember two people who strove to make a difference in Appalachia – musician Elaine Purkey and former coal miner Charles Wayne Stanley. Purkey died in September after contracting COVID-19. Stanley passed in August after battling black lung disease.
COVID-19 has taken the lives of more than 260 West Virginians. Earlier this month, the state lost one of its most powerful and vocal social activists and musicians, Elaine Purkey. Caitlin Tan has this remembrance.
Coal miners across the Ohio Valley are struggling with a resurgence of black lung disease. It’s just one of the many costs of coal mining that the Ohio Valley ReSource documents in a new book called “Appalachian Fall.” Jeff Young has this update on one of the miners profiled in the book: Charles Wayne Stanley; a man who spoke up for his fellow miners and what they contributed to the country.
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