Clifford Kinney Rorrer

Clifford Kinney Rorrer, 80 of Danville, passed away Thursday, April 2, 2026, at the Woltz Hospice Home in Dobson, NC.

A funeral service will be held at 2pm on Monday, April 6, 2026, at Fair Funeral Home Chapel in Eden. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service. The family will receive friends at their home.

Kinney was born January 4, 1946, in Rockingham County, North Carolina, to the late Clifford L. Rorrer and Virginia Nelson Rorrer. He graduated from Appalachian State University with a bachelor degree in 1968 and a master degree in 1969. Prior to his career with Danville Community College, Kinney taught at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia.

Kinney taught history at Danville Community College for 32 years. During that time, he took students on history tours to Europe 15 times visiting important historical sites that included the Acropolis in Athens, Normandy in France, and Pompeii in Italy among many others. As a part of his class, Military History of the American Civil War, he took hundreds of students to battlefield sites in seven different states over a period of 10 years.

Kinney also produced and hosted a bluegrass and old-time music radio show called Back to the Blue Ridge for WVTF in Roanoke, Virginia for almost 16 years. He also hosted a radio show in Danville, Virginia, called Saturday Day Night Hall of Fame. Kinney played banjo in an old-time string band that played concerts in Alaska, Minnesota, Washington, Illinois, Delaware, Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom, as well as the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. He wrote numerous magazine articles and liner notes for CDs of old-time music. Kinny loved collecting 78 rpm records of old-time music and playing them for friends on his old Victrolas. Kinney wrote “Rambling Blues, The Life and Songs of Charlie Poole” in 1982. The 2nd Edition of this will be coming out this summer, being released by UNC Press.

Kinney’s greatest pleasure was spending time with his daughters and their families of whom he was very proud.

Surviving are his loving wife, Bonnie Joyce Beetem Rorrer; daughters, Dr. Kathryn E. Green and husband Pryor Green, Virginia E. Coykendall and husband, Dr. David Coykendall; granddaughters, Josie Green and Alice Coykendall. Kinney is also survived by his brother, Douglas Rorrer, sister, Linda Cox, nieces, Melissa Weiss (Alex), Kim White (Skip), and nephew, Taylor Rorrer.

Online condolences may be left for the family at www.fairfuneralhome.com.