Appalachian Figures
“Charlie” from Mary Helen
Charles W. “Charlie” Berger was born in Harlan on January 12, 1936, the son of Benjamin Southard Berger and Rebecca Ethington Berger, and grew up in the Mary Helen coal camp at Coalgood. In that company town he absorbed the social world he would later represent: union men and coal operators, courthouse politicos and Green Dragon athletes, Baptist pews and hunting buddies scattered up the hollows.
He graduated from Harlan High School in 1954, then spent two years at Georgia Teachers College in Statesboro and picked up additional coursework at the University of Georgia before transferring homeward. Berger completed a B.S. in business at the University of Kentucky in 1960 and earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1963.
By 1962 he was practicing law in Harlan, and by the mid 1970s he had also joined his brother Robert’s firm in Pineville, handling workers compensation and related cases for coal operators and others across the mountains. Martindale Hubbell directories list him as a Harlan attorney admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1963, with an AV Preeminent rating that reflected how fellow lawyers saw his work.
Judicial records show him arguing at the state appellate level as early as the 1960s. In Noe v. Commonwealth (1965), the Kentucky Court of Appeals names “Eugene Goss, Charles W. Berger, Harlan, for appellant,” placing a young Berger alongside one of the county’s best known trial lawyers. Decades later he was still in the courtroom; a 2000 Kentucky Court of Appeals opinion in Whitaker Coal Company v. Melton lists “Charles W. Berger, Harlan, for Appellant,” reflecting a long career in coalfield workers compensation law.
Regulator from the Coalfields
Before he ever ran for the state senate, Berger spent four years on the Kentucky Public Service Commission under Governor Wendell Ford. Obituaries and a later Senate resolution agree that Ford appointed him to the PSC, where he helped regulate utilities that touched every miner’s household light switch.
Commission orders from 1972 show him at work. In March 1972, Administrative Order 147 lists a three member body that includes “Commissioners Charles W. Berger, Robert E. Spurlin and Joe S. Wheeler, Jr.” In May, Administrative Order 150 again lists Berger and his colleagues while assigning one commissioner to conduct hearings for Kentucky’s water districts and associations. The PSC’s 1972 “Order Vault” index contains multiple entries bearing his name as a voting commissioner.
Those dry orders mattered in the hills. The PSC signed off on rate structures, service territories, and infrastructure decisions that shaped whether rural families got safe water and reliable electric service. For a coal county lawyer who knew the realities of company camps and hollow side subdivisions, the commission became a training ground in how statewide policy flowed back down into Harlan’s kitchens and church basements.
The Seventeenth District’s Coalfield Senator
Berger entered electoral politics at the end of the 1970s. The State Board of Elections file for the 1988 general election lists “CHARLIE BERGER” as the Democratic nominee for the 17th Senatorial District, with county by county returns for Bell, Harlan, Letcher, and Perry counties.A similar set of returns from 1992 shows him again as the Democratic candidate, this time across Bell, Harlan, Leslie, and Letcher counties, and once more winning handily.
Reference works summarize the arc. The Political Graveyard and the entry for Kentucky’s 17th Senate District both place Berger, Democrat of Harlan, in the seat from January 1, 1980 through January 1, 1997, noting reelection campaigns in 1983, 1988, and 1992 before he finally lost renomination.
In Frankfort he rose quickly in leadership. A June 1990 Kentucky Administrative Register lists “Charles W. Berger” as Assistant President Pro Tem of the Senate, alongside Joe Wright as majority floor leader and David Karem as minority floor leader. Later LRC publications and a 2016 Senate memorial resolution identify him not only as Assistant President Pro Tem but also as President Pro Tem, the presiding officer chosen by his Senate colleagues.
Interim committee reports show how he spent that clout. Informational Bulletins for the 1990s list Berger on the powerful Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue and on the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary, as well as on subcommittees overseeing postsecondary education and juvenile crime. A Legislative Research Commission analysis of state prison farm properties in the early 1990s names him as Senate President Pro Tem at a time when the legislature was rethinking corrections and economic development uses for state land.
Newspapers across eastern Kentucky echo that picture. The Floyd County Times in April 1980 mentioned “Sen Charles Berger of Harlan” in coverage of a coal miners bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that he did not vote to bring the measure out of committee. A 1991 Floyd County Times piece described a domestic violence panel created by Senate Concurrent Resolution 47 and co chaired by “Sen. Charles Berger, D Harlan, and Rep. Greg Stumbo,” again underscoring his central role in high profile policy debates.
The Mountain Eagle in Letcher County, looking back from 2020, remembered him alongside Senator Kelsey Friend as one of the legislators expected to tackle litter and coal waste problems in the county, a reminder that he represented more than just Harlan’s courthouse square. Taken together, election returns, committee rosters, and local papers show a coalfield senator who mastered Frankfort procedure yet kept his eye on the mountains that sent him there.
Reform, Domestic Violence, and Difficult Traditions
During the 1990s, Kentucky policy makers began to treat domestic violence as a major criminal justice and public health issue. A Legislative Research Commission report on the Task Force on Domestic Violence describes an ambitious body that brought together legislators, judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, social workers, and victims advocates to study the causes and extent of domestic violence and recommend statutory changes. Companion LRC publications place Senator Charles Berger in the judiciary leadership that oversaw many of those reforms, including subcommittees on juvenile crime and the courts.
Reporters also found him on the uneasy boundary between Appalachian tradition and statewide politics. In a 2014 column titled “Senate race reveals Ky. cockfighting secret,” Courier Journal columnist Joe Gerth recalled an earlier episode in which Governor John Y. Brown Jr. phoned “Charlie Berger, of Harlan” to confirm that a seemingly obscure bill was in fact about cockfighting. The anecdote captured the role Berger often played in Frankfort: the local translator who could speak plainly about what mountain voters saw as heritage, even when the rest of the state was moving the other way.
Higher Education and Coal Country Development
Berger’s influence reached beyond statutes and committee rooms. At Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, longtime president W. Bruce Ayers later recorded an oral history for the Louie B. Nunn Center in which he credited “Senator Charlie Berger, who represented Harlan County,” with crucial help on higher education projects in the region. Those projects ranged from campus expansions to workforce training efforts that tried to soften the blow of coal’s decline.
A separate Floyd County history site describing 1990s economic development in the region recalls House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo and Harlan County Senator Charles Berger working together on Eastern Kentucky Racing Incorporated’s proposals, part of a broader push to diversify coal counties through tourism and entertainment schemes.
These references are brief, but they suggest that local leaders saw Berger as a useful ally when it came time to coax funds and approvals out of Frankfort, whether for college buildings, racetrack proposals, or other attempts to keep paychecks flowing in the mountains.
Oral Histories: Berger in His Own Words
Some of the richest material on Berger’s public life comes from the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky. In a 1990 interview for the “History of Education in Kentucky: Education Reform” project, recorded while he was Assistant President Pro Tem, Berger reflected on the Kentucky Education Reform Act era and the politics of school funding.
A 1991 Nunn Center interview for the “Family Farms of Kentucky” project shows him in a different register, discussing the transition from small farms to other forms of employment in eastern Kentucky and the policy responses that might sustain rural communities. In a lengthy 2003 oral history for the Kentucky Legislature Oral History Project, he offered a political life story that spanned his PSC years, his Senate tenure, and his relationships with governors, staff, and lobbyists.
Other Nunn Center interviews remember him from the outside. Southeast president W. Bruce Ayers, recorded in 2006 and 2007, described Berger as a key supporter of community college expansion. In the “Appalachia: Women of Coal” project, Jeanette Gilpin’s 1993 interview on Harlan County campaigns includes “Senator Charlie Berger” among the central political figures of the period. Taken together, these oral histories offer future researchers a layered portrait: Berger as narrator of his own career and Berger as seen by allies who depended on his help.
Green Dragon, Church Member, Friend
Obituaries from 2016 fill in the personal side that official records leave out. The Harlan Funeral Home notice and a reprinted obituary in the Harlan Daily Enterprise and Lexington Herald Leader trace a familiar mountain story: a boy from a coal camp who remained rooted in the county even as he walked the marble halls of Frankfort.
They describe a lifelong member of Harlan Baptist Church whose Sunday School class doubled as a circle of close friends, an active member of Kiwanis and Toastmasters, a participant in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and a devoted “Harlan Green Dragon” who loved gardening, hunting, raising dogs, and keeping roosters. The same accounts note that both the PSC and the Kentucky Senate presented him with distinguished service awards and that he was inducted into the Harlan Green Dragon Hall of Fame in 2012.
Community memory surfaces again in the obituary of his lifelong friend Ronald Ross in March 2016. Anderson Laws and Jones Funeral Home’s notice lists “special friends, Charles Berger and Frank Samuels,” and notes that Ross’s “Fellow Green Dragon Friends and Bluegrass Music and Hunting Buddies” would mourn his passing. In the same week, the Kentucky Senate passed Resolution 225, formally adjourning in honor and loving memory of Charles W. “Charlie” Berger and sketching his life from Mary Helen to law practice, PSC service, and the Senate presidency.
Together, those documents suggest that for all his titles, Berger’s identity was never only “Senator Berger.” To his neighbors he remained simply Charlie, the Harlan lawyer and Green Dragon who happened to be the person governors called when they needed to understand what a bill meant in the coalfields.
Why Berger’s Story Matters
In many ways, Charlie Berger embodied the contradictions of late twentieth century Appalachian politics. He came out of a coal camp yet often worked with utility regulators and coal companies. He chaired panels on domestic violence and juvenile crime while representing employers in workers compensation disputes. He could explain cockfighting bills to a governor and higher education appropriations to a college president.
For historians of the region, his life offers a case study in how eastern Kentucky’s local networks intersected with state power. Oral histories preserve his own voice and the recollections of those who relied on him. PSC orders, election returns, and committee reports show where he sat and what authority he held. Obituaries, funeral home guest books, and community pieces like The Mountain Eagle’s “The Way We Were” column capture the affection and criticism that still surround his name in Harlan County.
In a county better known nationally for mine wars, black lung, and strike lines, figures like Berger remind us that much of Appalachian history happened not only in dramatic confrontations but also in committee rooms, court filings, and church parking lots. His story sits at that intersection of courthouse and coal tipple, a reminder that the people who shaped the region’s politics were as complex and contradictory as the mountains themselves.
Sources & Further Reading
Oral history: “Interview with Charles W. Berger,” October 17, 1990, History of Education in Kentucky: Education Reform Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky.Kentucky Oral History
Oral history: “Interview with Charles W. Berger,” July 18, 1991, Family Farms of Kentucky project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.Kentucky Oral History
Oral history: “Interview with Charles W. Berger,” November 14, 2003, Kentucky Legislature Oral History Project, Nunn Center.Kentucky Oral History
Oral history references: “Interview with W. Bruce Ayers,” December 6, 2006; “Interview with Jeanette Gilpin,” November 13, 1993, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.Nunn Center+2Nunn Center+2
Legislative records: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, Informational Bulletin 187 (1993) and Informational Bulletin 194 (1995), including membership lists for Appropriations and Revenue, Judiciary, and related subcommittees and the Task Force on Domestic Violence.legislature.ky.gov+5legislature.ky.gov+5legislature.ky.gov+5
Legislative record: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, Alternative Uses for State Prison Farm Properties(early 1990s), listing Berger as President Pro Tem.Legislative Research Commission
Kentucky Senate Resolution 225 (2016 Regular Session), “A RESOLUTION adjourning the Senate in honor and loving memory of Charles W. ‘Charlie’ Berger.”Legislative Research Commission
Public Service Commission: Kentucky PSC Administrative Order No. 147 (March 20, 1972) and Administrative Order No. 150 (May 8, 1972), listing Commissioner Charles W. Berger.Kentucky Public Service Commission+1
Election returns: Kentucky State Board of Elections, official 1988 and 1992 General Election results for the 17th Senatorial District listing “CHARLIE BERGER” as Democratic nominee.elect.ky.gov+1
Judicial records: Noe v. Commonwealth, 396 S.W.2d 808 (Ky. Ct. App. 1965); Whitaker Coal Company v. Melton, 2000 Ky. App., both naming Charles W. Berger as counsel.Justia+1
Contemporary newspapers: Floyd County Times (Prestonsburg), April 2, 1980, coverage of a coal miners bill mentioning “Sen Charles Berger of Harlan”; March 31, 1991 domestic violence panel story naming “Sen. Charles Berger, D Harlan”; The Mountain Eagle (Whitesburg), “The Way We Were,” March 18, 2020, recalling “Senator Kelsey Friend and Senator Charles Berger” in litter and coal issues.Fergus Falls Public Library+2Fergus Falls Public Library+2
Community sources: Anderson Laws and Jones Funeral Home, “Ronald Ross” obituary (2016) listing Charles Berger as a special friend.aljfh.com+1
Harlan Funeral Home, “Charlie Berger | 1936–2016” obituary; reprinted as “Charles Berger Obituary” in the Harlan Daily Enterprise via Legacy.harlanfuneralhome.com+2Legacy+2
University of Kentucky and Kentucky Legislature obituaries and notices summarized in SR 225.Legislative Research Commission
“Charles W. Berger” and “Kentucky’s 17th Senate District,” Wikipedia; “Berger, Charles W.” entry in The Political Graveyard.Wikipedia+2Wikipedia+2
Martindale Hubbell profile for “Charles W Berger,” Harlan and Pineville, Kentucky.martindale.com+2martindale.com+2
Floyd County history page “Floyd County Yesterdays” (KyKinfolk) on Eastern Kentucky Racing Incorporated and the role of “Harlan County Senator Charles Berger.”Kykinfolk
Joe Gerth, “Senate race reveals Ky. cockfighting secret,” Courier Journal, May 9, 2014.Courier-Journal