By RICK STEELHAMMER
Charleston Gazette-Mail

(Gazette-Mail file photo by F. Brian Ferguson)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County attorney, troubadour, actor and entertainer George Daugherty, perhaps best known by his stage name, the Earl of Elkview, died Sunday at age 86.
A trial lawyer in the Charleston area since 1958, specializing in medical liability cases, Daugherty said in a 2009 Daily Mail interview that he made a conscious effort to explore life outside of work in the mid-1960s, and began auditioning for, and appearing in, Kanawha Players and Charleston Light Opera Guild theatrical productions.
In 1973, he became a regular on the Capital City Jamboree country music show, televised statewide, where he initially played ukelele and a musical saw, and sang self-composed songs, many of them humorous, with titles like “It Takes a Snuff-Dippin’ Woman for a ‘Baccer Chewin’ Man.” It was then that Daugherty, who lived in Elkview since age 4, bestowed upon himself the title “Earl of Elkview” to help separate his identity as a lawyer from that of an entertainer.
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