FLASHBACK 2015: PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE BILL HOWLEY "SWIMMING TO THE OTHER SIDE"

(09/08/2026)

2026 - HERE WE GO AGAIN Over a decade ago Bill Howley successfully led the movement against the PATH electric line project that crossed the earth bound properties that split 70 backwoods farms in Calhoun County. Now comes an even greater Goliath project, the largest ever built in the eastern USA, affecting the family owned land, delivering power to data centers in Virginia. It has created misery for those families still connected to their deep mountain roots. Maria Paoletti, Khymi Russell, and Jacob Howley performed and led the Bill Howley's celebrants in "Swimming to the Other Side," from Emma's Revolution We are living 'neath the great big dipper We are washed by the very same rain We are swimming in this stream together Some in power and some in pain We can worship this ground we walk on Cherishing the beings that we live beside Loving spirits will live forever We're all swimming to the other side I am alone and I am searching, hungering for answers in my time I am balanced at the brink of wisdom I'm impatient to receive a sign I move forward with my senses open Imperfection, it be my crime In humility, I will listen We're all swimming to the other side The Howley clan honor his life On this journey through thoughts and feelings Binding intuition, my head, my heart I am gathering the tools together. I'm preparing to do my part All of those who have come before me Band together and be my guide Loving lessons that I will follow, We're all swimming to the other side When we get there we'll discover All of the gifts we've been given to share Have been with us since life's beginning And we never noticed they were there We can balance at the brink of wisdom Never recognizing that we've arrived Loving spirits will live together We're all swimming to the other side By Bob Weaver 5/2015 A memorial service for 62-year-old Chloe resident Bill Howley was held Saturday at Heartwood in the Hills, with family, friends and associates coming from all parts to celebrate his life. In addition to a life of public service, many preferred to remember him as a farmer, a man of the sod, a keeper of the air and water. In a letter he wrote to his family 42-years-ago, he told them he was coming to West Virginia for a vacation, not knowing he would spend his life in the backwoods. One of the celebrants said he spent his life "instructing the stars," clinging to the earth and being a public advocate over things that should really matter to people. He touched the lives of family members, countless friends and colleagues, who will remember his passion, intellect, and humor. Celebrants came together, family, friends and associates to honor Howley's life The celebrants sang Colleen Anderson's song "West Virginia Chose Me." "Someone's always leaving here, it's just that kind of place It's just that kind of world today you learn to live with loss The grass is always greener there, just on the other side The air is always cleaner there, the sky is twice as wide I'm not the type to argue, I won't say it isn't true It's just the kind of place for passing through. And a few of us are staying and it's not a point of choice It's not we who do the choosing we are chosen by the place And West Virginia Chose Me, sure as my own mother knows me If I leave you West Virginia, it don't matter where I roam I don't know where I'm going, but I know I'm coming home. Jude Binder of Heartwood in the Hills led the celebration, which included family members reading Howley's favorite passages, playing his favorite music, while others recalled his life and passions. The memorial concluded with the celebrants singing, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." "Will the circle be unbroken. By and by, Lord by and by There's a better home a-waiting In the sky, Lord in the sky. See BILL HOWLEY WAS PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE

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