Hazel Dickens, Obit and Arrangements

Hazel J. Dickens

By TOM BONE Bluefield Daily Telegraph


WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hazel J. Dickens, 75, of Washington, DC, died Friday, April 22, 2011 at the Washington Home Community Hospice in Washington, D.C. Born in Montcalm, W.Va., she was the daughter of the late Hillary N. and Sarah J. Simpkins Dickens. Hazel was an award winning song writer and recording artist in Bluegrass and Folk Music. She was an activist for coal miner's rights writing and recording many coal mining songs. She also appeared in several films including It's Hard To Tell The Singer From The Song, Matewan and Songcatcher. She also contributed to the sound track of Harlan County, Coal Mining Women, Matewan and Black Lung. Hazel has received numerous awards through the years. She was the first woman to receive the International Bluegrass Music Association Award, honored by the Smithsonian Institution, received the 2001 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of The Arts and was inducted into the West Virginia Hall of Fame in 2007. She just received the second Washington Monument Award ever given at the 2011 D.C. Bluegrass Festival. Her songs, honors and awards would be hard to list here as would be the list of people whose lives she touched with her talent and her character.

In addition to her parents, five brothers, John Dickens, Guy Dickens, Dan Dickens, Arnold Dickens and Thurman Dickens; along with four sisters, Velvie Woolwine, Beulah Cardwell Roberts, Dovie A. Bailey and Sally Dickens preceded her in death.

Survivors include one brother, Robert Dickens of Baltimore, Md.; several special nieces and nephews; and special friends, Ken Irwin of Rounder Records and Nancy Rowland of Washington, DC.

Funeral services will be conducted at 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 26, 2011, at the George W. Seaver Chapel of Seaver Funeral Home in Princeton with family and friends sharing memories. Burial will follow in Roselawn Memorial Gardens in Princeton. Friends may call at Seaver Funeral Home in Princeton from 1:00 p.m. to the service hour on Tuesday. Online condolences may be made at www.seaverfuneralservice.com