Died On This Date (August 6, 1973) Memphis Minnie / Early Blues Great
themusicsover Memphis Minnie (Born Lizzie Douglas)
June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973
With a career that spanned an impressive four decades, Memphis Minnie is considered one of the most influential female blues guitarists of all time, and having started her career in the ’20s, she is definitely a blues pioneer. Minnie learned to play the guitar as a child, and by the time she was 14, she had run away from home and joined the Ringling Brothers circus. In 1929, she landed her first contract with Columbia Records who released her first hit, “Bumble Bee.” In the early ’40s, Minnie added the electic guitar to her country blues repertoire, being one of the first blues artists to do so, thus paving the way for Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and Jimmy Rogers. Minnie continued to perform and record until her health started to decline in the mid-’50s, at which time she retired. She died of a stroke in a Memphis nursing home on August 6, 1973.