Brief info
Charles Wheeler was a very private person and we don't know much about him. Wheeler was born in 1946 to his parents Edith and Charles Wheeler, Sr. We don't know much about his early life, childhood, and school. His mother was from Fort Pierce, Florida. It is thought that he may have grown up in Fort Pierce with Alfred Hair and other Florida Highwaymen painters. He might have gone to Lincoln Park Academy where he would have met art teacher and Highwaymen mentor Zanobia Jefferson. This is not known.
The Highwaymen Trail is a group that preserves history and the city of Fort Pierce and the Florida Humanities Council run it. Wheeler started painting with Hair and his group when he was about twenty years old, maybe after finishing high school and serving in the military. When Wheeler first started as a Highwayman, he built frames for the group and learned how to paint by watching other artists who were also learning from Hair.