One of our readers, Terry Baker, has provided this photo of the Three Forks store at Highway 7 and County Road 512 in Quito, Leflore County, Mississippi.
The photos dates from 1995 and the building has since been demolished. This building at the intersection of Highway 7 and County Road 512 in Quito, Leflore County, Mississippi has been suggested as the site where Robert Johnson was poisoned.
“I am doing some writing for my own enjoyment, and I am going over my 1995 trip to Mississippi (I moved to New York City in 1993, and lived there until I returned to my native England in 2012).
Anyway, to start that Delta peregrination, I bought a poster at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, the original site above the city library, which showed the places in the state of importance to its Blues history.
Now, this is a quarter of a century ago, but the person selling me the poster in what was a small museum then told me to visit Quito and Morgan City on the trail, of course, of Robert Johnson. In my notes at the time I have written from what I am sure must have been from that person: “First house in Quito on left beyond junction with County Road 512, former Three Forks store, dragged there from two or three miles farther in on 512.”
I read your notes on your excellent website, and the comments from Honeyboy Edwards, plus one reader’s comments of the tornadoes that ripped through the Greenwood area, supposedly destroying the store, but all I can report is what I was explained to me. I attach a photo of the “store” I was told about, the explanation being that the Itta Bena-Quito road, although very basic, was still the busiest road in the area, and the store was brought here on a flatbed from two to three miles inward on 512.
Either a long tale I believed, or something with substance?
Many regards,
Terry
The photo used on the CD cover above was taken at Hooks Brothers Photography at 164 Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee.
Kings Palace Cafe, 162-164 Beale Street, Memphis, TN. The second floor was once occupied by Hooks Brothers Photography. The only known studio portrait of Robert Johnson was taken by Hooks Brothers Photography.
One of our readers from Greece, Panagiotis Charalampidis, left a comment on the site saying:
“Hello from Greece! I love your site! It has been a valuable source of information about the Blues. I just finished a series of videos about the History and Evolution of the Blues (10 episodes), something like a documentary or a series of history lessons for music lovers….”
Thanks Panagiotis. Glad you liked our website and found it useful.
Here are the 10 episodes of The History and Evolution of the Blues on Panagiotis Charalampidis’ YouTube channel, funkpunk.
The Hotel Chisca has a solid place in blues history as the home of radio station WHBQ, whose DJ Dewey Phillips was the first DJ to play an Elvis Presley record on air when he played Elvis Presley’s That’s All Right (Mama) on 6 July 1954.
Elvis Presley had recorded That’s All Right (Mama) at Sam Phillips‘ Sun Records at 706 Union Avenue on 5 July 1954. On 6 July 1954 Sam Phillips delivered a copy of the single to Dewey Phillips (no relation) at the WHBQ studio at the Hotel Chisca. Dewey Phillips played That’s All Right (Mama) on his Red, Hot And Blue radio show the same day and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Mississippi Country Music Trail marker for Bobbie Gentry, Grand Avenue, Greenwood, MississippiMississippi Country Music Trail marker commemorating Elsie McWilliams, Meridian, MississippiMississippi Country Music Trail marker for Elvis Country, Elvis Presley Birthplace Museum, Tupelo, MississippiMississippi Country Music Trail marker for Marty Stuart, Philadelphia, Neshoba County, MississippiMississippi Country Music Trail marker for Country Music Comes Of Age, Meridian, Mississippi
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Jimmie Lunceford (1902-1947) was born in Fulton, Mississippi. Although he is not well known today, his band was one of the most popular bands of the 1930’s and 1940’s Big Band and Swing era.
The author, Matthew Taub, contacted MississippiBluesTravellers.com by email with a request for information about Robert Johnson’s grave sites. We put him onto T. DeWayne Moore of the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund and Gayle Dean Wardlow, who found Robert Johnson’s death certificate in the Leflore County archives in the 1970’s.