This is the abridged history of B.B. King. He passed away in 2015. If he had lived, the blues musician would be turning 100 years old on September 16th, 2025.
Born in a cropper shack near Itta Bena, Mississippi, his parents, Nora and Albert, named him Riley B. King. Before he sang the blues, Riley lived it. His parents separated when he was very young. Then at the age of 9, his mother died. On her deathbed, Mama Nora hugged Riley tightly and said, “When you do good and treat folks right, good things will come to you.” Riley saved those words in the pocket of his soul and moved to his grandmother’s home in the hills of Kilmichael, Mississippi.
At the Elkhorn school near Kilmichael, students laughed at Riley because he stuttered badly. His teacher, Professor Luther Henson, would remind him that despite his condition, he was born with a purpose. Professor Henson also taught Riley and his classmates that a Black child in Jim Crow America did not have the luxury to be mediocre. He told his students, “You must be exceptional.” These words shaped young Riley into a good student, a popular church singer, and a successful tractor driver. Whatever he attempted, Riley B. King did so in a spirit of excellence.
Reverend Archie Fair, a singing preacher at Austin Chapel (COGIC), inspired Riley to play guitar. The preacher’s weeping strings soothed Riley’s grief when he sat in church remembering Mama Nora on Sundays. During the week, Riley received joy listening to blues records playing on his Aunt Mima’s winding Victrola. Standing in the center of her cabin, as Blind Lemon Jefferson’s guitar cried, WAAH-WAAH-WAAH, Riley would clap his sorrow away. And whenever Riley dared to sing gospel or blues, his stutter vanished. His voice was golden.
As a teenager, Riley purchased his first guitar for $15. Lessons were impossible on his sharecropper wages, so he ordered a guitar book from the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog. His ambition was to sound like his cousin, Bukka White, a Memphis bluesman who played a silver resonator with a metal slide. Few people know this, but B.B. King’s piercing electric sound evolved from his tireless attempts to play like Bukka.
By 1940, Riley’s grandmother, Elnora Farr died. He moved from pillar to post, never content until he settled in the Delta town of Indianola, Mississippi. Come Saturday nights on the corner of Church and Second Street, he would play his blues for dancing men and women, who had labored all week in the cotton fields. Captivated by Riley’s golden voice and his good-time music, the dancers filled his guitar case with coins, making him feel rich. There in Downtown Indianola under a glimmering moon, Riley would make his guitar giggle as he remembered his mother’s words. When you do good and treat folks right, good things will come to you.
Through shattering trials and astounding triumphs, Riley B. King the tractor driver transformed into B.B. King, the Blues King, philanthropist, and international star. He won 15 Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Blues and Rock & Roll Halls of Fame, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush.
This year marks B.B. King’s centennial. Celebrate his light. Tell your children his legacy. Sit with them and listen to Live at the Regal from 1964. If blues music is to thrive for generations to come, young people must learn about B.B. King. During their formative years, children must have an early encounter with the music of Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Furry Lewis, Koko Taylor, John Lee Hooker, and a host of other Black geniuses whose blues shaped America. A child’s music education should begin in the home. B.B. King turns 100! Let the good times roll.
Alice Faye Duncan is a Memphis educator who writes for children. Learn about her books at alicefayeduncan.com. Duncan will celebrate B.B. King’s centennial at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music on Saturday, September 13th, at 2 p.m., where she will read her new book, Blues Boy — The B.B. King Story.
