Townsend died in Grafton, Wisconsin, where he was being honored as the last surviving artist with Paramount Records.
The Grafton Blues Association brought a plaque honoring him to his hospital room before he died. Henry Townsend was the first blues artist to record music in nine consecutive decades.
He recorded his first album in 1929, composing hundreds of songs throughout his career.
But Townsend only had a third grade education, and couldn't read music. He grew up on an Illinois cotton plantation, ran away at nine and caught a freight train to St.
Louis, where he worked in the red light district. Later on, he lived in the same brick bungalow he shared for 40 years with his late wife, Vernell, who performed with him.
Family, fans remember Townsend's deep love for music
By Stephen Deere
ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/03/2006
They didn't call him "Mule" for nothing.
This was the boy who fled his Mississippi home at age 9 and hopped on a train to East St. Louis, all to escape a whipping.
This was the man who burst onto the St. Louis blues scene in 1929, before many of the city's other blues greats.
And this was the legend who became the only blues artist to record in every decade since then, and perhaps the only artist to record from the 1920s into the new millennium.
More than a hundred people on Monday crammed into Mount Nebo Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis at a funeral service to say goodbye to Henry "Mule" Townsend, who died Sept. 24 at 96 years old.
"What he shows us is that with determination and tenacity and with the help of God, you can do some monumental things in your life," said the Rev. Dwight Davis, pastor of the church.
Those who knew Townsend talked about his love for others, his musical genius and the stubbornness that earned him his nickname.
Townsend's son, Alonzo, 19, a budding blues rap artist, said he never learned how to play guitar or piano like his father but that, "I learned how to love my neighbor."
Henry Townsend, 96; Blues Guitarist Went From Odd Jobs to Master Artist
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
September 29, 2006
Blues guitarist Henry "Mule" Townsend, who fled home for St. Louis as a boy and then stayed for a prolific career that spanned eight decades, has died.
He was 96.
Townsend died Sunday of pulmonary edema in Grafton, Wis., said John May, chairman of the St.
Louis Blues Society.
Townsend was being honored at a blues festival as the last surviving musician from the old Paramount Records, May said. The label recorded much of the blues material produced from 1929 to 1932, including "race records" by black artists for black audiences.
Townsend, who won a National Heritage Award in 1985 as a master artist, was born in Shelby, Miss., but grew up in Cairo, Ill. He was only 9 when he hopped a train for St.
Louis to avoid a whipping from his father for pulling a prank on a cousin, he told the Associated Press in an interview in June.
To support himself, he did odd jobs, including shining shoes, selling whiskey and cleaning theaters.
He learned guitar and piano, and decided on a career in blues guitar after hearing budding bluesman Lonnie Johnson, considered the Jimi Hendrix of the 1920s, perform in the old Booker T.
Washington Theater in St. Louis.
News RSS