The news last week about the death of Jerry West was a stunner. Jerry West, dead? Of course, West, like the rest of us, faced mortality, but he was not like the rest of us, was he?
Unless we stopped to think about it, it just felt as though West would always be there. He was so etched in the psyche of West Virginians that he was immortalized.
Jerry West. Just saying his name in any sports conversation triggered stories. One old timer remembered seeing West play in the old Field House at WVU. Another remembered watching West’s heroics with the Lakers. Many others said West was their hero growing up.
As West Virginians, we clung to him desperately. Regardless of whatever disparaging remark was made about our state, no matter what struggles we endured, we always had Jerry West. His greatness was undisputed, and we basked in that.
West fans suffered through WVU’s one-point loss in the national championship game to California in 1959 and the eight Laker losses in the NBA championships during his tenure, but West, by his own admission, internalized the losses as personal failures.
Finally, after the Lakers beat the New York Knicks to win the title in 1972, West said, “This is one summer I’m really going to enjoy.” However, that joy was short-lived since the Lakers lost the title game the following season to the Knicks.
Yet, through it all West was consistently recognized as one of the greatest players in league history. He is the only player on a losing team to be named MVP of the NBA finals (1969 loss to the Celtics). Perhaps that, more than anything, is indicative of his NBA career.
He is also regarded as one of the greatest sports general managers. He assembled the talent for the Laker dynasty in the 1980s and was responsible for the famous deal that brought free agent Shaquille O’Neal to Lakers, while drafting Kobe Bryant out of high school.
West was not a warm and fuzzy hero to us. As the New York Times wrote in West’s obituary, “Both [Roland] Lazenby’s biography and West’s own book depict him as a troubled perfectionist and a relentless, pitiless self-examiner—someone who, in West own words, was ‘aloof and inscrutable,’ possessed of ‘a demon-filled mind’ and unable to fully enjoy his many successes.:”
That was on full display in West’s candid memoir, “West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life.” He wrote of growing up in West Virginia, “I am the fifth of six children, raised in a home, a series of them actually, that was spotless but where I never learned what love was, and am still not entirely sure I know today.”
We wanted to meet him, talk to him, honor him, but West typically shied away from that. He wrote, “I have always, all my life, experienced an odd sensation whenever I am singled out. I am embarrassed by the attention, uncomfortable with it.”
We did not know or fully understand this about our hero until that book was published 13 years ago, and we are fortunate that he had the courage to write so honestly about himself. He gave us the opportunity to see him as more than a sports icon with GOAT statistics, but rather as a complicated, conflicted and tortured human being.
That autobiography was yet another example of West giving everything he had into a project, pushing through the emotional pain threshold to provide a brutally frank accounting of his life. Unfortunately, some will make judgements about West based on the inaccurate portrayal of him as a crazed and ill-tempered executive in the ham-handed HBO series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” West may have been driven to obsession, but he was not an angry maniac. West was deeply offended by the depiction, and we were too.
I wonder if West was ever able to appreciate what he gave to us? Whether he knew it or not, he carried us with him on those broad, square shoulders throughout his life. We celebrated his successes and suffered along with him at the defeats.
Of course, he suffered more than all of us put together. That often comes with greatness; the agonizing belief that you are never quite good enough. But we know that Jerry West gave all that he had and more.
Even if he could not fully appreciate all that he accomplished, we as West Virginians did throughout his life, and we still can as part of his legacy.
Several vehicles were involved in the I-79 southbound wreck Friday afternoon. (Submitted photo)
WESTOVER, W.Va. — West Virginia State Police are investigating a multiple vehicle crash on I-79 southbound.
The crash was reported at 1:08 p.m. Friday and as of 1:35 p.m. the southbound side of the interstate is closed.
Photos from the scene show at least one vehicle on its top and a second with heavy front-end damage.
No other information has been released.
BUCKHANNON — Eleven community bands from across West Virginia will descend on Buckhannon-Upshur High School on Saturday for the inaugural West Virginia Community Band Festival, a day-long celebration of music that ranges from concert pieces to jazz to — you guessed it — British pub songs.
The first notes ring through the auditorium at 10 a.m., when the Buckhannon-Upshur Middle School band kicks things off. From there, a new band takes the stage every 30 to 45 minutes, with the day finishing in a combined finale that pulls musicians from across the lineup into one mass band performance.
“We’re going to have 11 bands, and they truly are from all across the state,” said Sheila Zickefoose, president of the host Buckhannon Community Band. “We’re going to kick off the morning on Saturday with the middle school band, and then we, as the host band, are performing. And then we just start popping around the state. We have three bands from Huntington, two from Charleston, and bands from Clarksburg, Washington, Fairmont and Martinsburg.”
One of those groups will be making one of its first big appearances anywhere.
“The band from Martinsburg is just a year old, and so we’re the first big thing they’ve done since they got started,” Zickefoose said. “We’re beyond-the-moon excited for Saturday and being able to bring everybody together.”
The festival closes with two pieces performed by a combined band drawn from the day’s musicians — one a classical work by Billy Joel chosen by the host band, the other written by a member of the Kanawha Valley Community Band, whose director will conduct it. That handoff is more than ceremonial.
“We’re going to be truly passing the baton,” Zickefoose said. “They are hosting next year’s band festival.”
The 2027 festival is already on the calendar for May 8 at the University of Charleston — a remarkable stretch of planning for an event that hasn’t had its inaugural event yet.
“It’s really kind of scary how it’s all come together, because I expected blow-ups, things that were not going to work, and you have to reverse course and come up with Plan B,” Zickefoose said. “And it really has not happened that way.”
The whole thing started, fittingly, with a goodbye. A husband-and-wife pair in the Buckhannon Community Band were leaving for a medical residency at CAMC in Charleston, and the band held a small farewell.
“His wife said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could all get together and play again sometime?’” Zickefoose recalled. “So that just got us thinking, ‘Well, how many community bands are there?’”
They found 17, and by August, Buckhannon’s band had organized a Zoom call to pitch a statewide festival. Roughly nine months later, it’s about to happen.
Inside the high school common area, around 10 local arts and crafts vendors will be set up throughout the day. Outside, three food trucks will be parked in the lot, with additional sweet-treat options rolling in for afternoon stops.
“We’re going to have food trucks parked outside so people don’t have to leave,” Zickefoose said. “But they’re also welcomem, if they would like, to come to town to find something else to eat.”
The musical menu is as varied as the food.
“We have concert bands that are going to be playing concert music. We have two jazz bands who are going to be playing jazz,” Zickefoose said. “And we actually have a brass band. And this is the third band from Huntington that plays British pub music.”
That brass band, she noted, is “completely off the wall” — a mix of Marshall University students and community band members.
For Zickefoose, Saturday is also a not-so-quiet pitch to anyone in Upshur County still eyeing an old instrument in a closet. She joined the Buckhannon Community Band when it formed in the fall of 2023, after her own clarinet had sat unused for three decades.
“It had been 32 years of my moving my clarinet from one side of the closet to the other,” she said, “always wondering and thinking, ‘You know, it’d be so cool to be able to play again.’”
She said the band plans to spend the day reminding people they don’t have to stay on the sidelines.
“If this has made you nostalgic and made you get that inkling of playing again, don’t be afraid. Don’t be hesitant. Just do it,” Zickefoose said. “Has it been a little painful at times, learning, relearning, hoping that the brain and body memory kicks in? Absolutely. But the best thing that I’ve done for myself in a very long time was joining this band, sticking to it, and I just can’t say enough about it.”
She encouraged people to give it a try.
“If people are interested, or even think they might be, get connected and come and have fun and enjoy it,” Zickefoose said. “Laugh when it doesn’t work and celebrate the little, wonderful victories that we have, because there’s nothing in this world more worth your time than making music.”
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Home prices across the U.S. have remained at record highs for years, driven by a limited supply and a persistent homebuilding shortage. More recently, economic uncertainty has kept more homebuyers on the sidelines, but it’s also discouraged home sellers, further limiting new listings and putting upward pressure on prices. Sellers who are in the market often have to offer incentives to attract offers from buyers—many of whom are wary of how much they can afford.
On the bright side, prices have begun to grow more slowly, and Redfin predicts that housing will become more affordable as wages outpace prices. But so far this year, the housing market has remained very slow, leaving buyers and sellers trying to time their next move.
So, what’s been happening with home prices in Charleston, WV, in 2026, and how do they compare to previous years? Redfin Real Estate analyzed the city’s January-March average median sale price over the last four years to find out. All data represents the three-month average median from January-March 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022.
How have house prices changed in: Charleston, WV
2026
Median sale price: $169,333
Year-over-year change: -0.5%
Percent change from 2022: +16.8%
2025
Median sale price: $170,167
Year-over-year change: +8.7%
Percent change from 2022: +17.4%
2024
Median sale price: $156,500
Year-over-year change: +6.1%
Percent change from 2022: +7.9%
2023
Median sale price: $147,500
Year-over-year change: +1.7%
Percent change from 2022: +1.7%
2022
Median sale price: $145,000
How have house prices changed nationwide?
2026
Median sale price: $429,526
Year-over-year change: +1.0%
Percent change from 2022: +9.3%
2025
Median sale price: $425,170
Year-over-year change: +3.3%
Percent change from 2022: +8.2%
2024
Median sale price: $411,608
Year-over-year change: +5.6%
Percent change from 2022: +4.7%
2023
Median sale price: $389,707
Year-over-year change: -0.8%
Percent change from 2022: -0.8%
2022
Median sale price: $393,018
This story was produced by Redfin and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
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