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






