for opposing Operation Iraqi Freedom
2003  Jessica Lynch, private, USA, briefly a Prisoner of War
2004  Charlie Jones, businessman, owner of coal barge company
2005  "West Virginia Soldiers and their families"
2006  David Hardesty, president, West Virginia University
2007  Jennifer Garner, actress
2008  Betty Schoenbaum, widow of founder of Shoney's, philanthropist
2009  Jim Justice, businessman, saved The Greenbrier from bankruptcy
2010  Allen Tackett, general, WVANG
2011  Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., singer, won America's Got Talent
2012  Dan Foster, legislator and medical doctor, supported single-payer health care system
2013  Boy Scouts of America, built large campground near Fayetteville

(After the award, 1963 winner Vance, was United States Secretary of State; both 1970 and 1982 winners Brotherton and Recht were justices of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals; 1972 winnerNow Eddie must be Obeid in Lebanon, too

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The streets of Matrit . . . boys play yesterday in the home village of Eddie Obeid, below. Top photo: Jamal Saidi

Labor's Eddie Obeid is making trouble in his home village, write Kate McClymont in Sydney,
and Ed O'Loughlin in Lebanon

"This isn't an environment that's normal, not for the Christians or the Muslims. The two sides are unhappy," says a spokesman for mayoral candidate Yola Obeid.

What is upsetting the tiny village of Matrit, in Lebanon, is the arrival of NSW MP Eddie Obeid and 22 of his relatives to lend a hand in the inaugural council elections.

But Mr Obeid is not supporting his niece, Yola. Rather, he backing the local Muslim candidate, Salame Salame.

Charlie Obeid, a tiler from Strathfield, was in