Cord Byrd: “I am pleased and proud to announce today, October 3, is the Reverend Mr. Perry's 85th birthday. I am also pleased and…”

“I am pleased and proud to announce today, October 3, is the Reverend Mr. Perry's 85th birthday. I am also pleased and proud to point out that more than 50 years ago--as a matter of fact, it was more than 60 years ago--Mr. Perry and I worked together as meat cutters in the New River Company Store near Beckley, WV. Our careers took us on different paths. Mine became a career in public service. Mr. Perry became a coal miner. That is a very honorable title, a 'coal miner.' The man who raised me was a coal miner. My wife's father was a coal miner. My wife's brother-in-law died of silicosis pneumoconiosis, which he contracted through working in the coal mines. His father was killed by a slate fall in a coal mine. So the coal miners have a great heritage of which they can be proud. After attending the Appalachian Bible Institute, the Reverend Mr. Perry was ordained in 1957 as a Baptist minister. For the next 40 years, he preached the word of God throughout southern West Virginia.”