Irene McKinney
Irene McKinney (April 20, 1939 – February 4, 2012) was an American poet and editor, and served as the Poet Laureate of the state of West Virginia from her appointment by Governor Gaston Caperton in January 1994 until her death. Biography Third oldest of her parents' (Ralph Durrett and Celia Phares Durrett) six children, Irene McKinney was born and grew up in Belington, Barbour County, WV on a 300-acre farm that had been in her family for generations. She had 5 siblings (2 older siblings named Harold Durrett and Eleanor Leary and 3 younger siblings named Ralph Waldo Durrett, Janet Stonerook and Eileen Martin). Her family grew most of their food on their farm due to the struggle of living on one income and having to feed 8 mouths in the house. She attended a one-room school, Concord School, for first through fifth grades. McKinney recalls that her second grade teacher, Mrs. Teeter, recognized and encouraged her by giving her a double promotion from second to fourth grade. From a young age, her father Ralph Durrett, a schoolteacher, read her works by Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Wordsworth, Edgar Allan Poe, and Pinocchio. Irene graduated Belington High School in 1956 married