That's All Right

On this day in history the King of Rock and Roll and Mississippi native, Elvis Presley, made his first radio debut in 1954 with the song "That's All Right."  The song was played by Memphis, Tennessee, radio station WHBQ and became an instant hit.

Here are a few fact about the song that made Elvis famous:

• "That's All Right" was originally written and recorded by another Mississippi native Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup.
• The song was not originally part of Elvis' recording session.  While taking a break, Elvis started jamming to an upbeat version of the song that caught producer Sam Phillips' attention. 
• On July 7, 1954, "That's All Right' was played on Dewey Phillips' radio show "Red, Hot & Blue."
• The song was such a success that Dewey played the song seven times in a row and and a total of fourteen times during the program. 
• Elvis was so nervous during his radio debut that he hid in the Suzore No. 2 Theater until retrieved by his parents. 
• The song also became Elvis' first single and was released July 19, 1954. It sold around 20,000 copies.
• The song did not reach national charts, but was number four on the local Memphis charts. 
• Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup became know as the father of Rock and Roll after Elvis' success with three of his songs: “That's All Right,” “My Baby Left Me,” and “So Glad You're Mine.”

If you would like to learn more neat Elvis fact check out MLC's large collection of Elvis materials.

Guralnick, Peter. Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. Boston: Little, Brown, 1994. Print.
Jorgensen, Ernst. Elvis Presley: A Life in Music : The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's, 1998. Print.

http://www.mtv.com/artists/arthur-big-boy-crudup-2/

Tubman on the Money

The nonprofit organization Women on 20s has announced the winner of their online election to see who America thinks should be the first woman on United States paper currency. They announced the winner as Harriet Tubman yesterday and have petitioned the President to recommend to the Treasurer that the change be made by 2020, the 100 year anniversary of Women's Suffrage in America. Harriet Tubman was a fascinating woman who:

• Was born with the name Araminta. She changed her name to Harriet, possibly in homage to her mother Harriet Ross, after she escaped slavery.
• Was hit on the head when trying to help another slave avoid punishment. The resulting injury troubled her the rest of her life, bringing seizures, headaches, and blackouts.
• Made at least nineteen trips on the Underground Railroad and helped nearly 300 slaves reach freedom in the North. She was never caught.
• Was a nurse, laundry woman, cook, and spy during the Civil War. Once, she even led a raiding party!
• Helped former slaves and orphans after the Civil War, starting schools and a home for the aged.

For more information, check out these excellent resources on Harriet Tubman and her life at your local public library or the Mississippi Library Commission:

Harriet Tubman
written by Marion Dane Bauer

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
written by Carole Boston Weatherford
illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman
written by Alan Schroeder
illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent: How Daring Slaves
and Free Blacks Spied for the Union During the Civil War
written by Thomas B. Allen
illustrated by Carla Bauer

Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom
written by Catherine Clinton

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harriet_Tubman.jpghttp://www.womenon20s.org/campaign
"Tubman, Harriet Ross." Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Credo Reference. Web. 13 May 2015.

Ellen, We Can't Quit You, Baby

Have you ever heard of Josephine Haxton? Born in 1921 in Natchez, she's the author of several soul-searching books about the South-Mississippi in particular. She passed away Wednesday (November 7, 2012) here in Jackson, MS.

Perhaps you're more familiar with her nom de plume. Back when Haxton began writing, she based her first book on two of her aunts. When it was ready to wing its way into the world, she didn't want her relatives to be recognized. Ellen Douglas, the author, and A Family's Affairs, the book, were both "born" in 1962. The book won a Houghton Mifflin Fellowship. Several other novels followed, in addition to essays and other nonfiction. Her novel Apostles of Light was nominated for a National Book Award. In 2000, she received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and in 2008, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

Haxton hobnobbed with some of the literary giants of Mississippi: Shelby Foote, Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, Charles Bell. She was well acquainted with newspaperman Hodding Carter, too. In their own small way, the Haxtons both tried to stave off the insanity of some Mississippians' response to the Civil Rights Movement. Josephine held meetings in her home and ignored color boundaries. Her husband Kenneth advocated school integration. The two stayed in Greenville and raised a family. These influences consistently appeared in Haxton's books.

One of Haxton's hallmarks was her honest prose. She didn't sugar coat. She didn't shy away from hard truths. Haxton consistently confronted tensions in her home state with a sharp eye and ear for the people who live there. She saw the faults, the quirks, the human foibles within all of us-even ones we didn't know we possessed. She painted authentic pictures-of the awkward relationships between men and women; of the stumbling unions between blacks and whites; of what the South used to be and what it is becoming-that we recognized as and in ourselves.

In her last book, a collection of essays entitled Witnessing, Haxton had this to say:

I remember saying to a friend of mine, joking one day while we sat in the Greenville cemetery, the unlikely but beautiful spot where we often went to share a beer and look at the headstones, that my own epitaph should be, "She was always willing to take a small chance."

I think she did better than that. Don't you?

Douglas, Ellen. Witnessing. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2004.
Inge, William, ed. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Volume 9: Literature. The University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20121108/NEWS/311070072/Writer-Josephine-Haxton-aka-Ellen-Douglas-dead-91

You're Named Where?

People name their children all sorts of things. Some choose a more traditional route with age-old standbys like Mary and George or John and Sue. Other people opt for a more unique name by changing an older name's spelling or adding punctuation marks or creating a new name entirely. The brilliant few, in my humble opinion, have chosen to name their offspring after actual things: plants, bodies of water, and, of all things, the United States. It appears this trend has been going on for some time. Check out this chart enumerating state names appearing in the US Federal Census over the years:

Name	Most Popular Census Year for State Name	Number with State Name That Year
Alabama	1880	1,682
Alaska	1930	177
Arizona	1930	2,158
Arkansas	1880	363
California	1880	518
Carolina (North and South)	1910	26,030
Colorado	1900	61
Connecticut	1930	8
Dakota (North and South)	1930	205
Delaware	1900	324
Florida	1930	5,576
Georgia	1930	108,629
Hawaii	1900	10
Idaho	1920	87
Illinois	1920	334
Indiana	1870	2,772
Iowa	1920	1,541
Kansas	1920	873
Kentucky	1900	69
Louisiana	1900	1,833
Maine	1920	3,152
Maryland	1940	3,314
Massachusetts	1900	2
Michigan	1910	33
Minnesota	1880	138
Mississippi	1870	105
Missouri	1900	9,035
Montana	1930	615
Nebraska	1930	358
Nevada	1930	2938
Hampshire (New)	1880	18
Jersey (New)	1900	343
Mexico (New)	1910	89
York (New)	1880	1,415
Ohio	1940	286
Oklahoma	1910	145
Oregon	1900	282
Pennsylvania	1900	53
Rhode Island	1920	4
Tennessee	1880	4,476
Texas	1900	1,445
Utah	1940	419
Vermont	1920	609
Virginia (Virginia and West)	1940	473,973
Washington	1870	21,977
Wisconsin	1920	14
Wyoming	1930	70

Have you ever met anyone actually named, for instance, Pennsylvanian Bullard? Real lady--she appears in the 1920 US Federal Census with her husband Jeff. Here are a few other real people we've come up with who are named after US States:

• Dakota Fanning is a child acting star from Georgia.
• William Faulkner named his first daughter Alabama after his aunt Alabama (Minter 127).
• Nevada Barr is an author whose father named her after a character in a book he liked (MWP).
• Montana McGlynn was a member of the reality TV show The Real World season six.

And because fiction can be more satisfying than real life, here are some fictional characters with US State names:

• Alaska Young in John Green's Looking for Alaska
• Nevada Smith in Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers
• Montana Wildhack in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five
• Wyoming Knott in Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• Arizona Ames in Zane Grey's Arizona Ames.
• The daughter named KIM in Edna Ferber's Showboat:
  

  And as Kim Ravenal you doubtless are familiar with her. It is no secret that the absurd monosyllable which comprises her given name is made up of the first letters of three states - Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri - in all of which she was, incredibly enough, born - if she can be said to have been born in any state at all (Ferber 1).

My favorite "stumble upon" in this search is by far this family:

Were they just patriotic? Or were the parents so pleased to find a like-named soul that they chose to continue the tradition? I suppose we'll never know.

Ferber, Edna. Showboat. G. K. Hall & Co., 1981.
Minter, David. William Faulkner: His Life and Work. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1980.
http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/barr_nevada/index.html

The Days the Music Died

Last week, one of our regular patrons called with a question about a female singer who had died young. He described in great detail exactly where she gained her fame, and how, and how she died. He then fell to wondering about other young female singers who met their demises before their time. For him, and for you, I compiled this list of twenty ladies under 40 who knew how to belt out a tune:

1. Evelyn Preer 7/16/1896 – 11/27/1932
   Double pneumonia at age 36   
   Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Preer was also a noted actress of the day and helped to define African-American women in film. She performed with the likes of Duke Ellington (http://www.silentera.com/).

2. Patsy Cline 9/8/1932 – 3/5/1963
   Plane crash at age 30
   Cline was a pioneering female country singer, being one of the first ladies to break into the genre (Cline, Patsy).

   

   Patsy Cline

3. Cass Elliot 9/19/1941 – 7/29/1974
   Heart attack at age 32
   Elliot, who was born Ellen Naomi Cohen, was a member of the 60s pop folk group, The Mamas and the Papas (Cass Elliot).
 
4. Janis Joplin 1/19/1943 – 10/4/1970
   Heroin/morphine overdose at age 27
   Blues rock musician of the late 1960s. Famous for singing, among other songs, "Me and Bobby Mcgee" (Janis Lyn Joplin).

   

   Janis Joplin

5. Florence Ballard 6/30/1943 – 2/22/1976
   Heart attack at age 32
   An original member of The Supremes, Ballard grew up with Diana Ross and Mary Wilson (Florence Ballard).
6. Tammi Terrell 4/29/1945 – 3/16/1970
   Brain tumor at age 24
   The talented Terrell performed with Marvin Gaye and other Motown favorites (Tammi Terrell).
7. Sandy Denny 1/6/1947 – 4/21/1978
   Brain hemorrhage at age 31
   Denny was a British folk rock singer of the 1960s and 1970s (Sandy Denny).
8. Minnie Riperton 11/8/1947 – 7/12/1979
   Breast cancer at age 31
   Riperton had an amazing voice with a 5 octave range (Minnie Riperton).
9. Mary Ann Ganser 2/4/1948 – 3/14/1970
   Encephalitis at age 22
   Ganser was a member of the girl group The Shangri-Las along with her twin sister Marge (The Shangri-Las).
 
10. Karen Carpenter 3/2/1950 – 2/4/1983
    Anorexia nervosa at age 32
    Carpenter sang with her brother Richard in the duo The Carpenters (Karen Anne Carpenter).

    

    Karen Carpenter

    
11. Karen Young 3/23/1951 – 1/26/1991
    Bleeding ulcer at age 39
    Young was a one hit wonder with Hot Shot (Karen Young American singer).
12. Eva Cassidy 2/2/1963 – 11/2/1996
    Melanoma at age 33
    Cassidy, who had a strong voice and was adept at harmonizing, became better known after her death (Eva Cassidy).
13. Wendy Holcombe 4/19/1963 – 2/14/1987
    Cardiomyopathy at age 23
    Holcombe was a talented singer who also played the banjo (http://www.findagrave.com/).
14. Mia Zapata 8/25/1965 – 7/7/1993
    Strangled at age 28
    Zapata was the lead singer for the grunge punk band The Gits when she was murdered. Her killer was found ten years later with DNA tests (Westmoreland).
15. MC Trouble 7/30/1970 – 6/4/1991
    Epileptic seizure at age 20
    Born LaTasha Sheron Rogers, MC Trouble was the first female rapper signed to Motown (http://www.findagrave.com/).
16. Selena 4/16/1971 – 3/31/1995
    Shot at age 23
    Selena was born Selena Quintinilla and later married guitarist Chris Perez. She was a major voice of Tejano music in the 1990s. She was shot by the president of her fan club, who was suspected of mismanagement and embezzlement (Selena).
17. Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes 5/27/1971 – 4/25/2002
    Automobile crash at age 30
    Lopes was part of the all-female rap group TLC. Her vehicle was estimated to be travelling at 85 mph when she crashed in the Honduras (Lisa Lopes).
18. Amie Comeaux 12/4/1976 – 12/21/1997
    Automobile accident at age 21
    Comeaux was a country singer who was just getting her big break when she died in a car accident (http://www.amiecomeaux.com/).
      
19. Aaliyah 1/16/1979 – 8/25/2001
    Plane crash at age 23
    Born Aaliyah Dani Haughton, Aaliyah was just coming into her own as a rising pop singer when her plane crashed leaving the Bahamas (Aaliyah).
     

    

    Aaliyah

20. Amy Winehouse 9/14/1983 – 7/23/2011
    Alcohol poisoning at age 27
    Winehouse was a soul and R&B singer with a history of alcohol abuse and an outstanding musical talent (http://www.bbc.co.uk/).

Did I miss your favorite lady of song? Let me know in the comments.
Rest in peace, ladies. Rest in peace.

"Aaliyah." Contemporary Musicians. Vol. 47. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Cass Elliot." Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Cline, Patsy (1932-1963)." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Eva Cassidy." Contemporary Musicians. Vol. 35. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Florence Ballard." Almanac of Famous People. Gale, 2011. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.

"Janis Lyn Joplin." Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Karen (Anne) Carpenter." Almanac of Famous People. Gale, 2011. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Lisa Lopes." Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 36. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Minnie Riperton." Almanac of Famous People. Gale, 2011. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Sandy Denny: Mercurial Queen Of British Folk Rock." All Things Considered 14 June 2010. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Selena." Contemporary Hispanic Biography. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"The Shangri-Las." Contemporary Musicians. Vol. 35. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
"Tammi Terrell." Almanac of Famous People. Gale, 2011. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
Westmoreland, Sean. "Suspect charged in rocker Mia Zapata's '93 murder." Boston Herald 6 Mar. 2003: 020. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
http://www.amiecomeaux.com/biography.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15453517
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aaliyah_Dana_Haughton_02.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JanisJoplinSinging.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Karen-carpenter_white_house.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patsy_Cline_II.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Young_(American_singer)
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3832
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9527875
http://www.silentera.com/people/actresses/Preer-Evelyn.html