John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson
Blairs Chapel CME Cemetery
Medon, Madison County, Tennessee
Written by Dan Morris for the Jackson (TN) Sun in 2012
On a hilltop, under an oak in southwest Madison County, a tombstone is adorned with harmonicas and coins left by visitors. Aside from songbirds and gusts of wind that rustle the leaves, it is a quiet place, far removed from the boisterous nightclubs of south Chicago in the 1940s. John Lee Curtis “Sonny Boy” Williamson is buried beneath that stone, but his legend lives on in the world of blues music. He made his name in Chicago as a musician, singer and songwriter and is regarded as the first great blues harmonica player. Sonny Boy was born near his grave, and contemporary artists still record his songs, attempting to duplicate his magic with a harmonica.
He was 34 and enjoying another nationwide hit with his recording of “Shake the Boogie” when he was murdered in Chicago in 1948.His wife, Lacey Belle Davidson, brought him home, granting the request he made known in a verse of one of his songs: “I want my body buried in Jackson, Tennessee.”
Mentor Mourned
William “Billy Boy” Arnold was 12 when Sonny Boy died. Hearing the news was the most shocking moment of his young life.
“I rang the doorbell of his apartment house on Giles Street here in Chicago,” Arnold said. “He lived on the second floor. A lady stuck her head out of a window and asked who I was looking for. I said, ‘Sonny Boy.’ She said, `Oh, baby, ain’t you heard? He got killed.'”
“I was so sad,” Arnold said. “Sonny Boy was my buddy. He was going to show me how to play the harmonica like he did.”
Arnold had heard Sonny Boy’s records and was in love with the music. He got a harmonica and tried to play like his idol. When he discovered that Sonny Boy lived nearby, he recruited a cousin and friend to go with him to try to meet Sonny Boy. They rang the doorbell, and Sonny Boy answered.
“We had never seen him, and we said, `We want to see Sonny Boy.’ He said, ‘I’m him. Come on up.'”
![John Lee "Sonny Boy" and Lacey Belle Williamson, with a young Muddy Waters (left) and Eddie Boyd (center, standing), mid 1940s at the Club Georgia on Chicago's south side; other persons are Andrew 'Bo' Bolton (Muddy's long time chauffeur, sitting far right), the woman standing on the right is Mrs. White, wife of the club owner, the boy standing on the left is Mrs. White's son, who helped out at the club [source: Rowe 1975, p. 42 (credited to "Chess Records"); a bit photoshopped by Stefan Wirz]](https://i0.wp.com/mtzionmemorialfund.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/69662161_661340604346268_1670137722842382336_n.jpg?ssl=1 "John Lee \"Sonny Boy\" and Lacey Belle Williamson, with a young Muddy Waters (left) and Eddie Boyd (center, standing), mid 1940s at the Club Georgia on Chicago's south side; other persons are Andrew 'Bo' Bolton (Muddy's long time chauffeur, sitting far right), the woman standing on the right is Mrs. White, wife of the club owner, the boy standing on the left is Mrs. White's son, who helped out at the club [source: Rowe 1975, p. 42 (credited to \"Chess Records\"); a bit photoshopped by Stefan Wirz]")
Familiar Start
Sonny Boy probably saw himself in Arnold because Sonny Boy began his love affair with the harmonica when he was 11. His mother, Nancy Utley, gave him his first harmonica for Christmas. He taught himself how to play, and friends said he quickly learned how to make the instrument squall and sound like a pack of hounds.
His father, Rafe Williamson, died when he was a baby. His stepfather, Willie Utley, died during World War II. The family attended Blairs Chapel CME Church, which was founded in 1881 about a mile off Steam Mill Ferry Road. It relocated to its present location on Steam Mill Ferry in 1971. Sonny Boy began his musical career singing at church in a quartet named The Four Lamb Jubilee. But his harmonica was not allowed at church.
Making it Big
“Now, you be my baby, mm, come on an’ be my baby, mm. I’ll buy you a diamond, I’ll buy you a diamond ring. Well, if you don’t be my little woman, then I won’t buy you a doggone thing.”
Sonny Boy’s material has been recorded by dozens of musicians, including Rod Stewart, Van Morrison, The Yardbirds, The Grateful Dead, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. He often wrote and sang about home, such as in “Shannon Street Blues,” in which he refers to the street in downtown Jackson and to his wife, Lacey.
“I went down on Shannon Street, now to buy some alcohol,” he moaned. “Lacey tells me, papa, papa, well you ain’t no good at all…You don’t make me happy, so long as you fool with this alcohol.'”
In typical blues tradition, Sonny Boy wrote about women, booze, empty pockets, bill collectors, welfare, and even his old refrigerator in “Frigidaire Blues.” He was the first to cup both the microphone and harmonica in his hands to achieve a unique amplification and sound. It was said that he put pillows under his feet during recording sessions to muffle the sound of his shoes as they tapped to the beat.
Blues historians unanimously say that Sonny Boy was the most influential harmonica player of his generation. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980.
“He influenced almost every blues harmonica player who came after him,” said David Evans, a University of Memphis professor who is a noted specialist in American folk and popular music. “He pioneered in treating the harmonica as a second voice, answering and interacting with the vocal. Previously, most harmonica players simply played interlude choruses or harmonica solo numbers…He was highly respected and had many imitators of both his harmonica and vocal style.”
Sonny Boy was at the top of his profession and would have built upon his reputation if he had lived. David Evans thinks “he would have been a major figure in the Chicago blues scene of the 1950s and 1960s,” who probably would have toured internationally and collaborated with blues-rock stars of the 1960s. The amazing talent, no doubt, would have also composed more tunes that would come to be regarded as standards of the genre.
But the brutal end came suddenly for Sonny Boy.
Dead at 34
Late Recognition
For 42 years, Sonny Boy’s remains rested unnoticed on top of the hill at the old Blairs Chapel Cemetery. The site was unmarked except for a small, metal rectangle that funeral homes place at graves for a temporary indicator. Kudzu blanketed the hill, and few challenged the fallen trees and thick brush to visit the area’s graves.
That changed in 1990 when Michael Baker, Judy Pennel and Jack Wood of the Jackson-Madison County Library got involved. Realizing the significance of Sonny Boy’s contributions to the nation’s blues music, they researched his life, wrote articles and gained local and national support.
That led to the placement of a red granite headstone at Sonny Boy’s grave and a Tennessee State Historical Marker at the intersection of Tennessee Highway 18 and Caldwell Road near Malesus Park in Jackson.
On June 1, 1990, the 42nd anniversary of his death, the city held a Sonny Boy Williamson Day to celebrate his life and dedicate the new markers. The city also organized a blues festival on Shannon Street that lasted about 20 years.
The downtown library location curated a exhibition about Sonny Boy in recognition of his 100th birthday in 2012. Of course, Sonny Boy’s music is plentiful on the Internet. You can Google his name and find him singing many of his songs on YouTube.
But be certain to use the name Sonny Boy Williamson I to distinguish between him and Sonny Boy Williamson II, or Alec Miller from Mississippi, another blues harmonica player, who took the name Sonny Boy Williamson and used it professionally after the first Sonny Boy’s death.
Baker, who often visits Sonny Boy’s grave, was proud that the library pushed to recognize the blues musician.
“It was a great project to do and one of the things I’m most proud of in my career,” Baker said. “It’s gratifying even today when school kids come in to do research on Sonny Boy for term papers.
“He was a phenomenal musician, singer and writer, so he had it all and was at the top of his game when he died. The man did a lot in 34 years.”
