~Front~
One of the earliest blues musicians from Mississippi to make recordings, Ishmon Bracey (1899-1970) is buried in the nearby Willow Park Cemetery. In the 1920s and '30s Bracey was a leading bluesman in the Jackson area and . . . — — Map (db m71512) HM
Constructed in 1923 and renamed the King Edward Hotel in 1954, the Edwards Hotel was the site of temporary studios set up by OKeh Records in 1930 and the American Record Corporation in 1935 to record blues artists Bo Carter, Robert Wilkins, Joe . . . — — Map (db m49680) HM
(side 1)
Joe McCoy and his brother Charlie McCoy, both born on a farm near Raymond, performed and recorded widely during the pre-World War II era, but their most important legacy may rest with the songs they wrote or cowrote. These . . . — — Map (db m70324) HM
[Front]
The cemetery of the Newport Missionary Baptist Church is the final resting place of Elmore James (1918-1963), often described as the "king of the slide guitar." James' electric style built on the approach of Robert Johnson and later . . . — — Map (db m140748) HM
[Front]
Holmes County has been a significant contributor to the legacy of African American blues and gospel music in Mississippi. Heralded blues artists born or raised in the Lexington area include Elmore James (a native of Richland, . . . — — Map (db m140751) HM
Front
Many blues performers who gained fame in the Delta, Jackson, and Chicago and on the southern soul circuit have lived in or near Tchula, including Elmore James, Hound Dog Taylor, Jimmy Dawkins, Jesse Robinson, Lewis "Love Doctor" . . . — — Map (db m121121) HM
Front
Soul and blues star Denise LaSalle was born Denise Allen near Sidon in rural Leflore County on July 16, 1939, but spent much of her childhood here in Belzoni. After moving to Chicago in her teens, she began writing songs and . . . — — Map (db m77269) HM
Front
Blues piano master Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins was born on July 7, 1913, on the Honey Island Plantation, seven miles southeast of Belzoni. Perkins spent much of his career accompanying blues icons such as Sonny Boy Williamson . . . — — Map (db m77268) HM
Front
The names of Turner’s Drug Store (located on this corner) and the Easy Pay Store across the street are etched into blues history as sponsors of some of the first radio programs in Mississippi to feature Delta blues. In 1947-48 . . . — — Map (db m77270) HM
Front
One of country music's most prolific and revered songwriters, Hank Cochran (1935-2010), was born in Isola and spent his early childhood years here. He wrote "Make the World Go Away," "A Little Bitty Tear," "She's Got You," and . . . — — Map (db m77169) HM
Front
Jazz bandleader and saxophonist James Melvin “Jimmie” Lunceford was born just outside Fulton on June 6, 1902. He formed his first band, the Chickasaw Syncopators, while teaching at Manassas High School in Memphis in . . . — — Map (db m96781) HM
Front
Born Virginia Wyette Pugh and raised on her grandparents' farm near Tremont, Tammy Wynette (1942-1998) might have remained an unknown local hairdresser, but with fierce determination and a voice and resilient life story that . . . — — Map (db m117206) HM
Front
The African American community of Moss Point has produced an abundance of talented musicians, including many who entertained along the Gulf Coast as well as some who traveled across the country and overseas as members of prominent . . . — — Map (db m102156) HM
Front
Music has been an integral component of Ocean Springs’ legacy as a coastal cradle of the arts and a sponsor of festive celebrations. Notable African-American musicians born in Ocean Springs include Jaimoe (Johnnie Lee Johnson), who . . . — — Map (db m122355) HM
James William Buffett, known to the entertainment world as Jimmy Buffett, was born in Pascagoula on December 25, 1946. He and his family lived at his location on Roosevelt Street. Jimmy spent his early years here before eventually moving to Mobile. . . . — — Map (db m200216) HM
Front
The Mississippi Gulf Coast Blues & Heritage Festival, one of the longest running blues festivals in the Deep South, was founded in 1991 by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Blues Commission, Inc. At the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in . . . — — Map (db m102158) HM
Side 1 In 1973 Mayor Charles Evers of Fayette and B. B. King began to cosponsor concerts at the Medgar Evers Homecoming in honor of the slain civil rights activist. Dozens of blues, soul, and gospel acts performed at the annual festival . . . — — Map (db m162116) HM
Front
The Laurel area, a hub of musical activity in southeast Mississippi, has been home to a number of noted blues performers including harmonica player Sam Myers, singer Albennie Jones, and guitarist Blind Roosevelt Graves. R&B, blues, . . . — — Map (db m110992) HM
Lafayette County’s blues history has encompassed a wide range of activity by scholars, promoters, record companies, and musicians. The nightlife of Oxford has welcomed both local performers and national touring acts. The most famous musician . . . — — Map (db m102876) HM
Front
The University of Mississippi is internationally famous for its work in documenting and preserving African American blues culture. In 1983 the Center for the Study of Southern Culture acquired Living Blues magazine, which . . . — — Map (db m102770) HM
Born Sept. 8, 1897, at Meridian, Miss. Known as the “Singing Brakeman,” Rodger's recordings of Southern blues and ballads greatly contributed to the world-wide popularity of a distinctly American musical form. — — Map (db m77219) HM
Front
Meridian's Jimmie Rodgers Day festivals of the 1950s, the first held May 26, 1953, became known as National Country Music Days, marking a turning point in the nation's enthusiasm for country music. Stars and fans from every . . . — — Map (db m77171) HM
Front
Elsie Williamson McWilliams (1896-1985), the sister of Jimmie Rodgers's second wife Carrie, wrote or contributed to music and lyrics for thirty-nine of the songs that Rodgers performed or recorded, although she never received . . . — — Map (db m77170) HM
Opened in 1909 as one of the South's premier streetcar pleasure parks, it consists of 32 informally landscaped acres and contains an 1890s Dentzel Carousel which is designated a National Historic Landmark. — — Map (db m77218) HM
Front
Singing winningly, with storytelling clarity and physicality, of the real lives and fondest dreams of his down home audience, with varied musical backing that ranged from his own solitary guitar to rural pickers, horns, and . . . — — Map (db m77176) HM
Jimmie Rodgers (1897 – 1933) is widely known as the "father of country music," but blues was a prominent element
of his music. The influence of his famous "blue yodels" can be heard in the music of Mississippi blues artists
including . . . — — Map (db m59656) HM
Front
Meridian blues and jazz performers have played important roles in musical history, both locally and nationally, not only supplying a foundation for other genres but also propelling music in new directions. Notables with Meridian . . . — — Map (db m111037) HM
Front
Rhythm & blues and soul singers have been major contributors to Meridian’s deep African American musical heritage, extending the legacy molded by gospel, jazz and traditional blues artists. David Ruffin of the Temptations and his . . . — — Map (db m77426) HM
Born in Meridian and the grandson of the railway yard manager where Jimmie Rodgers
worked, Moe Bandy became one of country music’s most popular singers of the 1970s and ‘80s. A master of honky
tonk as well as cowboy songs that reflected . . . — — Map (db m60544) HM
Front
The electronic amplification of vocals and musical instruments resulted in dramatic changes in the blues in the post-World War II era, notably the rise to prominence of the electric guitar. Peavey Electronics, founded in 1965 by . . . — — Map (db m77192) HM
Erected 1923-27 by the Hamasa Shriners in Moorish Revival style, this theater was among the finest movie/vaudeville “palaces” of its day, having one of the largest stage facilities in the United States. — — Map (db m77217) HM
Jewish merchants contributed greatly to Meridian's growth. The Grand Opera House (MSU Riley Center) and the Threefoot Building stand as evidence of their business success. Although Jews were well accepted in Meridian, their support of Civil Rights . . . — — Map (db m111054) HM
Monticello area native J. B. Lenoir (1929-1967) was best known during his lifetime for his 1955 hit “Mama, Talk to Your Daughter,” but he also played an important role in blues history because of his political engagement. In the 1960s . . . — — Map (db m79029) HM
An "Opera House" once stretched west inside a now-vanished 2nd story of this building. As many as 300 guests enjoyed live theater and silent movies up there in the early decades of the 1900's, while merchants like J.A. Bonds and John Youngblood . . . — — Map (db m155359) HM
Completed in the 1930's by Audie Coggins; later owned and operated by Claude Gentry as the Ritz Theater. The west side was Gentry Insurance. Restored by Wayne Stone in 1981 as Stone's Jewelry & Gifts.
National Register of Historic Places. — — Map (db m155360) HM
Elvis Aaron Presley was born Jan. 8, 1935, in this house built by his father. Presley's career as a singer and entertainer redefined American popular music. He died on Aug. 16, 1977, at Memphis, Tennessee. — — Map (db m4477) HM
Front
Raised on country here in Tupelo, first introduced as “The Hillbilly Cat,” then by RCA Victor as “the hottest new name in country music,” Elvis Presley’s revolutionary musical mix always had country as a key ingredient. Appearing . . . — — Map (db m102752) HM
Marker Front:
Elvis Presley revolutionized popular music by blending the blues he first heard as a youth in Tupelo with country, pop, and gospel.
Many of the first songs Elvis recorded for the Sun label in Memphis were covers of earlier . . . — — Map (db m29823) HM
On October 3, 1945, a ten-year old Elvis played to his first crowd on these grounds and took 5th place in a talent show.
Eleven years later he returned as the King of Rock and Roll!
Elvis in Tupelo
Elvis Aron Presley was born . . . — — Map (db m91174) HM
Attend a Pentecostal church service where Elvis first fell in love with gospel music.
Elvis Presley Birthplace presents a unique experience in the First Assembly of God Church where Elvis and his family regularly attended service. This structure . . . — — Map (db m29821) HM
In 1946, Tupelo radio station WELO broadcast weekly music jamborees from the Courthouse. Mississippi Slim, who had his own show on WELO, arranged for Elvis to perform at the jamboree. Elvis’ dream was to become as famous as Mississippi Slim and to . . . — — Map (db m144724) HM
Elvis enjoyed going to the movies, especially "westerns," at the Lyric Theatre. Friends recall how Elvis would climb over the divider in the balcony to sit among his African-American friends. The sweetest of the legends associated with this theatre . . . — — Map (db m155325) HM
In 1947, Elvis lived at the North end of Green Street, not far from here. Mayhorn Grocery previously occupied this space, and Elvis would walk to the store and sit on the porch listening to the blues. It was also here that he heard the sounds of . . . — — Map (db m102821) HM
From 1943~47, Elvis' father, Vernon, worked for L.P. McCarty & Son's local wholesale grocery company making deliveries to various parts of the City. Shake Rag, a historically black community, was one of his delivery areas.
It was here that Elvis . . . — — Map (db m29630) HM
The Birthplace. The Elvis Presley Birthplace Park was begun with proceeds Elvis donated from his 1957 concert at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair. Unchanged since it was built in the 1930's, the two-room birthplace sat unoccupied and in poor . . . — — Map (db m122996) HM
The Lyric Theatre was built in 1912 by Mr. R. F. Goodlett. Originally named The Comus, it hosted live vaudeville shows. In the 1930's it became a part of the Malco chain of movie houses and the name was changed to the Lyric Theatre. Its sturdy . . . — — Map (db m144732) HM
The long and remarkable life of B.B. King began near this site, where he was born Riley B. King on September 16, 1925. His parents, Albert and Nora Ella King, were sharecroppers who lived in a simple home southeast of here along Bear Creek. After . . . — — Map (db m173997) HM
Front
Baptist Town, established in the 1800s in tandem with the growth of the local cotton industry, is one of Greenwood’s oldest African American neighborhoods. Known for its strong sense of community, it is anchored by the McKinney . . . — — Map (db m77198) HM
Front
Radio disc jockeys played a major role in the spread of the blues, boosting the careers of local artists, introducing listeners to performers from across the country, and more generally serving as a voice for the community. Early . . . — — Map (db m77191) HM
Front
Born Roberta Lee Streeter in Chickasaw County (1944) and spending her childhood here, Bobbie Gentry brought the accents, sounds and images of Delta life into scores of haunting songs she wrote and records she made, to become one . . . — — Map (db m77177) HM
Front
During the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, the Elks Hart Lodge No. 640 at this site was one of the most important venues for rhythm and blues in the Delta. Particularly during the segregation era, fraternal organizations such as the . . . — — Map (db m77193) HM
Front
Greenwood native Walter “Furry” Lewis (c. 1899-1981) was a favorite figure on the Memphis blues revival scene of the 1960s and '70s, decades after he made his historic first recordings in the 1920s. Lewis, who had . . . — — Map (db m77196) HM
Front
Eddie Lee “Guitar Slim” Jones brought new levels of energy and intensity to electric guitar playing with his raw, incendiary approach in the 1950s. An impassioned singer and a flamboyant showman, Jones was best known . . . — — Map (db m77211) HM
Front
Hubert Sumlin’s sizzling guitar playing energized many of the classic Chicago blues records of Howlin’ Wolf in the 1950s and ‘60s. His reputation in blues and rock circles propelled him to a celebrated career on his own after . . . — — Map (db m77209) HM
Front
A seminal figure in the history of the Delta blues, Robert Johnson (1911-1938) synthesized the music of Delta blues pioneers such as Son House with outside traditions. He in turn influenced artists such as Muddy Waters and Elmore . . . — — Map (db m77203) HM
Front
Before the 1950s, relatively few African American voices were heard on the radio in the South. A major exception was live broadcasts of performances by gospel groups. During the 1940s this building housed station WGRM, which . . . — — Map (db m77200) HM
Front Virgil Brawley, Blind Jim Brewer, Moses “Whispering” Smith and other Brookhaven musicians have spread the blues far and wide, across the country or overseas. Brawley (1948-2018) remained the most locally connected, often returning here to . . . — — Map (db m202883) HM
Side ALittle Brother Montgomery (1906-1985), a major presence on south Mississippi's blues and jazz scene during much of the pre-World War II era, was famed for his trembling vocals and masterful piano playing. The Montgomery family, . . . — — Map (db m117480) HM
The Black Prairies of eastern Mississippi have produced a number of notable blues musicians, including Howlin’ Wolf, Bukka White, and Big Joe Williams. Activity in Columbus, the largest city in the region, centered around areas such as this block of . . . — — Map (db m27607) HM
One of America's leading playwrights, Tennessee Williams was born here March 26, 1911. He received the Pulitzer Prize for "Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Both stories set in the South. — — Map (db m8556) HM
Joshua Lawrence Meador was born in 1911 in Greenwood, Mississippi, and moved here at age seven. Meador worked for Walt Disney Productions from 1936 to 1965 as head of the effects department. His film credits include Snow White, Fantasia, Bambi, . . . — — Map (db m64694) HM
Front
For several decades beginning in the early 1900s, the Queen City Hotel, which stood across the street from this site, was at the center of a vibrant African American community along 7th Avenue North. Clubs and cafes in the area . . . — — Map (db m140699) HM
Side A
Big Joe Williams (c. 1903-1982) epitomized the life and times of the rambunctious, roving bluesman, traveling from coast to coast and around the world playing rugged, rhythmic blues on his nine-string guitar at juke joints, house . . . — — Map (db m27750) HM
The Club Desire, which stood across the street from this site, was one of Mississippi's premier blues and rhythm & blues nightclubs from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. Owner Clarence Chinn presented the top national acts, including B. B. . . . — — Map (db m80035) HM
Side 1:
Hickory Street, known locally as "The Hollow," was a hub of social life, commerce, and entertainment for the African American community of central Mississippi for several decades, up through the 1970s. Canton's most famous blues . . . — — Map (db m97089) HM
Mississippi's first rodeo was held here September 24-26, 1935. The rodeo was sponsored by two local businessmen, rancher Samuel Hickman of the B Bar H Ranch and George Baylis, owner of the Baylis Drug Store. Several notable cowboys were involved, . . . — — Map (db m143125) HM
Front
A recording artist, disc jockey, comedian, and ambassador for Memphis music, Rufus Thomas (1917 – 2001) was born here in Cayce. As a young man Thomas toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and later worked in Memphis as an . . . — — Map (db m96779) HM
(side 1)
Although Delta blues often claims the spotlight, other styles of the blues were produced in other regions of Mississippi. In the greater Holly Springs area, musicians developed a "hill county" blues style characterized by few chord . . . — — Map (db m84875) HM
Front
In 1940 singer-guitarist Booker “Bukka” White, who lived in Aberdeen during the 1920s and ‘30s, recorded the blues classic “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues.” Twenty-three years later the song’s title enabled . . . — — Map (db m102609) HM
Born in Smithville, Rod Brasfield was the Grand Ole Opry's top male comedian from 1947-1958, a beloved sad sack foil for Red Foley and Hank Williams and a comic sparring partner for Minnie Pearl and June Carter. He played dramatic and comic roles in . . . — — Map (db m173897) HM
Front
Riley B. King, who was born in the Delta fifty miles west of here in 1925, spent many of his formative years in Kilmichael in the 1930s and ‘40s before achieving stardom as “B. B.” King. His first mentor on the guitar . . . — — Map (db m90016) HM
Front
Roebuck “Pops” Staples, one of the foremost figures in American gospel music as a singer, guitarist, and patriarch of the Staple Singers family group, was born on a farm near Winona on December 28, 1914. Staples began playing . . . — — Map (db m90019) HM
[Front]
Long-time Neshoba County resident Bob Ferguson (1927-2001) was a key shaper of the “Nashville Sound” of the 1960s and ‘70s, as the producer of hundreds of major recordings and writer of such classic country songs as “Wings of a . . . — — Map (db m140732) HM
[Front]
A native of Philadelphia, Marty Gamblin began his long career in the music business through booking bands while still in high school. He later worked closely with Mississippi songwriter/performer Jim Weatherly, and ran Glen . . . — — Map (db m140736) HM
(side 1)
From his boyhood days performing here, Marty Stuart displayed singular zest for every flavor of country music. Beginning as a teenage mandolin player with Lester Flatt, he became an ebullient Grand Ole Opry star, "hillbilly . . . — — Map (db m130000) HM
Est. in 1889, the Neshoba County Fair fosters political, agricultural, educational, and social exchanges of knowledge and ideas. Home of the state's only licensed horse track since 1922 and the nation's largest campground fair, the Fair is . . . — — Map (db m140932) HM
The blues form reached both artistic and emotional peaks in the works of Otis Rush, who was born south of Philadelphia in Neshoba County in 1935. His music, shaped by the hardships and troubles of his early life in Mississippi, came to fruition in . . . — — Map (db m140850) HM
This Pavilion was constructed in 1914 as a shelter for gatherings and a venue for entertainment and public speaking; it continues to serve these purposes for the Fair as well as provide a location for selected events in the off season. Entertainment . . . — — Map (db m140940) HM
Newton County has a dual claim to blues fame, first as the birthplace of several historical figures and later as the site of an important blues event, the Chunky Rhythm & Blues Festival. Newton County natives include record businessman H.C. Speir . . . — — Map (db m141357) HM
Front
The roots of blues and gospel music run deep in the African American culture of the Black Prairie region. Among the performers born near Macon here in Noxubee County, Eddy Clearwater, Carey Bell, and Jesse Fortune went on to . . . — — Map (db m92636) HM
In the early morning hours of May 11, 1965, Johnny Cash was arrested for public drunkenness after he was found picking flowers on this site following a show at Mississippi State University the previous evening. Cash, who spent the night at the . . . — — Map (db m235196) HM
Front
Oktibbeha County has produced several blues artists who achieved fame for their recordings and live performances in Chicago, California, or other areas. Blues Hall of Famer Big Joe Williams (c. 1903-1982), who waxed the classic . . . — — Map (db m102869) HM
Front
Fred McDowell, a seminal figure in Mississippi hill country blues, was one of the most vibrant performers of the 1960s blues revival. McDowell (c. 1906-1972) was a sharecropper and local entertainer in 1959 when he made his first . . . — — Map (db m102873) HM
Front
Napolian Strickland (1924-2001) was one of Mississippi's most gifted musicians in the fife and drum and country blues traditions. A lifelong resident of the Como-Senatobia area, Strickland excelled on the homemade cane fife and . . . — — Map (db m102874) HM
Front
The African American fife and drum tradition in north Mississippi stretches back to the 1800s and is often noted for its similarities to African music. Its best known exponent, Otha (or Othar) Turner (c. 1908-2003), presided over . . . — — Map (db m102872) HM
Pre Crash: Rise of the Simple Man
In 1964 Lynyrd Skynyrd began humbly in Jacksonville, Florida. The founding members jokingly named the band after a gym coach, Leonard Skinner. Eventually, after numerous police interruptions of the band's . . . — — Map (db m146841) HM
In the 1950s, as a founder of rock 'n' roll, Bo Diddley helped to reshape the sound of popular music worldwide. His original style of rhythm and blues influenced
generations of musicians. He was one of rock's most influential artists because he had . . . — — Map (db m201232) HM
Front Acclaimed as the father of rock and roll, Bo Diddley (Ellas Bates McDaniel) was born near Magnolia, south of McComb, on December 30, 1928. Diddley wrote and recorded such hits as "I'm A Man", "Bo Diddley', "Say Man" and "I'm a . . . — — Map (db m104326) HM
This marker is presented to Southwest Mississippi
Regional Medical Center in grateful appreciation to
rescuers and caregivers for the tremendous care
provided to the twenty survivors of the Lynyrd Skynyrd
Band Airline Crash, October 20, 1977. . . . — — Map (db m202905) HM
Side A Summit Street was a thriving African American business district during the era of segregation, as well as a hotbed of musical activity. Blues, jazz, and rhythm & blues bands entertained at various nightclubs, cafes, and hotels, and . . . — — Map (db m51528) HM
Raised in Osyka, the versatile T. Tommy Cutrer succeeded as a country and gospel singer and instrumentalist and also as a businessman and politician, but his greatest fame came as a radio/television personality from the 1940s through the 1990s. As . . . — — Map (db m51625) HM
Pontotoc native Jim Weatherly is best known as
the author of "Midnight Train to Georgia,"a huge
hit for R&B group Gladys Knight
and the Pips, and he also had success as a
country songwriter and recording artist.
Charley Pride. Ray Price, Glen . . . — — Map (db m235192) HM
Front
Pontotoc County's wide-ranging musical legacy encompasses African American blues from Baby Face Leroy Foster, Lee Gates, R. C. Weatherall, and Terry "Harmonica" Bean as well as music by white artists who combined blues or R&B . . . — — Map (db m102867) HM
Albert Luandrew, better known as Sunnyland Slim, who was born in Vance (c. 1906), was a central figure on the Chicago blues scene from the 1940s until his death in 1995. Other noted Chicago bluesmen with Quitman County roots included Snooky Pryor, . . . — — Map (db m174068) HM
The son of a Sledge sharecropper, Charley Frank Pride first won notice as a singer when music was just a sideline to his early baseball career. Taking a shot at what seemed an unlikely career in Nashville, he went on to record fifty-two Top Ten . . . — — Map (db m107544) HM
John Lee Hooker (c. 1917-2001), one of the most famous and successful of all blues singers, had his musical roots here in the Delta, where he learned to play guitar in the style of his stepfather, Will Moore. Hooker spent many of his early years . . . — — Map (db m174054) HM
This area of Rankin County, formerly called East Jackson and later the Gold Coast, was a hotbed for gambling, bootleg liquor, and live music for several decades up through the 1960s. Blues, jazz, and soul performers, including touring national . . . — — Map (db m81859) HM
Front
Rubin Lacy was one of the most talented and influential artists in Mississippi blues during his short career as a secular performer. The grandson of a minister, Lacy was born in Pelahatchie on January 2, 1901. He was a well-known . . . — — Map (db m111013) HM
The musical programs of the Piney Woods School have produced many fine artists over the decades, including bluesman Sam Myers, who sang in vocal groups while attending a school for the blind located here. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a . . . — — Map (db m50905) HM
(side 1)
From the time of her childhood here in Star, Faith Hill demonstrated a zest for music and performing that took her to Nashville while still a teenager, and to stardom from the release of her first record in 1993. She became a . . . — — Map (db m91738) HM
