Raleigh County

A summer tradition for many families is back after being cancelled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the annual Lilly family reunion in Southern West Virginia -- but you don’t really have to be a Lilly to attend.The gathering was once the largest family reunion in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

On April 5, 2010, the day after Easter, a series of explosions rocked the Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal in Raleigh County.Twenty-nine men died,…

The Raleigh County Memorial Airport is getting a facelift, and along with that may come hundreds of new jobs in the area.

Coal operator W. P. Tams died on August 3, 1977, at age 94. Tams studied engineering at Virginia Tech before going to work in 1904 for coal operator Sam…

On this West Virginia Morning, we’ll learn about the name of the town of Odd, West Virginia in Raleigh County. Also, in this show, we hear a conversation…

American soul singer legend and West Virginia native Bill Withers has died at 81 of heart complications, unrelated to coronavirus, according to the…

Activist Judy Bonds was born in Marfork Hollow in Raleigh County on August 27, 1952. Like generations of her family, Bonds spent most of her life in the…

On July 8, 1972, Bill Withers’s song “Lean on Me” topped the Billboard charts for the first time. Rolling Stone magazine later ranked “Lean on Me” as the…

On February 18, 1969, 282 coal miners walked off their jobs in Raleigh County. While coal strikes were common at the time, this one was different. First,…

Appalachian Bible College—originally known as Appalachian Bible Institute—opened at Sylvester in Boone County on September 5, 1950. The nondenominational,…