Elmer Rich performs at the New Deal Festival, in Arthrudale, in July 2014. Rich performed for Eleanor Roosevelt when he was a kid.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Elmer Rich, the fiddling phenomenon who played for Eleanor Roosevelt, then later became an old-time music star in his 80s, died Saturday, June 20, at his home in Westover.
He was 95.
Rich was a teenager when he played for the First Lady that night in 1936 in Arthurdale, Preston County.
Arthurdale was the nation’s first Homestead Community.
The video can be seen here: http://centrum.org/2012/06/elmer-rich-plays-for-eleanor-roosevelt/.
Rich said he wasn’t nervous.
“I was just a kid. I was thinking more about the music than anything else.”
Rich again picked up the fiddle at the age of 81, following his wife’s death…