Two Organizations Placing Markers On Blues Musicians’ Graves

There are two reputable organizations we are aware of which are placing markers on Blues Musicians’ Graves, often on unmarked graves.

One is the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund; the other is The Killer Blues Headstone Project.

Here is a video about The Killer Blues Headstone Project.

Here are a few of the grave stones placed by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund which we have visited:

Memphis Minnie, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Walls, Mississippi

Memphis Minnie grave, Walls, Mississippi
Memphis Minnie grave, Walls, Mississippi

Mississippi Fred McDowell, Hammond Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Como, Panola County, Mississippi

Mississippi Fred McDowell's grave, near Como, Panola County, Mississippi
Mississippi Fred McDowell’s grave, near Como, Panola County, Mississippi

Click these links to see a list of the gravestones placed by The Killer Blues Headstone Project and by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund.

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A Reader Has Sent Us Photos Of The Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre, Glendora, Mississippi

One of readers, Keith Petersen, used our website’s information on Emmett Till to plan a visit to sites connected to the Emmett Till murder in August 1955. Keith Petersen is associated with The Killer Blues Headstone Project.

Keith Petersen has kindly provided us with some photos he took of the site of J.W. Milam’s former house in Glendora, Mississippi and the adjacent M.B. Lowe’s Glendora [Cotton] Gin. Keith Petersen took these photos during his recent trip to Mississippi.

In August 1955, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, the owner of Bryant’s Grocery in Money, Mississippi, beat and then murdered Emmett Till in a barn behind J.W. Milam’s house. They then took a 70 lbs. metal fan from the adjacent M.B. Lowe’s Glendora Gin, attached the fan to Emmett Till’s body with barbed wire and threw the body and the fan into the Tallahatchie River, where Emmett Till’s body was found a few days later.

The former M.B. Lowe’s Glendora Gin building is now the site of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre.

Milam's House sign, at the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Milam’s House sign, at the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi. The Glendora Gin building, now the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center, is in the background. (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Milam's House sign, at the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Milam’s House sign, at the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Glendora Gin sign, near the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Glendora Gin sign, near the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Glendora Gin building, now the site of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre, near the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Glendora Gin building, now the site of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre, near the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Glendora Gin building, now the site of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Glendora Gin building, now the site of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)

Our thanks to Keith Petersen for providing the photos above. We have not yet visited this site but we plan to do so on our next trip to Mississippi.

For more site connected to the Emmett Till murder, see our pages on Bryant’s Grocery, Tutwiler Funeral Home and the Emmett Till Murder Trial.

Glendora, Mississippi is also the birthplace of Sonny Boy Williamson.

Sonny Boy Williamson Birthplace sign, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Sonny Boy Williamson Birthplace sign, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)

Readers interested in Sonny Boy Williamson may also want to visit his grave outside Tutwiler, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi

Sonny Boy Williamson grave near Tutwiler, Mississippi. The grave stone was placed by Lillian McMurray, whose Trumpet Records label made the first Sonny Boy Williamson recordings.
Sonny Boy Williamson grave near Tutwiler, Mississippi. The grave stone was placed by Lillian McMurray, whose Trumpet Records label made the first Sonny Boy Williamson recordings.