Editor’s Note: When B.B. King passed away in 2015, American Blues Scene was there—not just in coverage, but in presence. The story that follows is written by our founder and then-editor, Matt Marshall, who drove to Memphis with his wife to pay respects. He took his camera and captured the quiet, the crowds, the grief, and the joy. Perhaps because it was all so personal, those photos were never published—until now.
I was editing for American Blues Scene when B.B. King was called home, and my wife and I just jumped in the car and drove down to Memphis to pay our final respects to The King. I took a lot of photos but for some reason or another, they were never really released so I wanted to share these.
The procession started with King taking a last ride down Beale Street. It looked like ten thousand mourners in the streets, including a special place for King’s extended family. People surrounded the hearse, crying, singing, and embracing old friends. Afterwards, they took B.B. on the two and a half hour ride home to his final resting place in Indianola, Mississippi, at the B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center.
The museum area was a circus. There were people, vans, buses, reporters and cameras everywhere. It was probably more people than the usually sleepy town of Indianola had ever seen.
Just like a wake is supposed to be, the event was half mourning, half celebrating. Fans, friends, family and a long line of musicians, famous or otherwise, lined up to view The King’s body and pay their respects. Nearby blues clubs had people playing music from early in the morning to late at night.
After a moving service at the church next door, they brought out horses (some were adorned with B.B.’s guitars on the saddle) and made a five block procession to the B.B. King Museum garden where the king of the blues was to be laid to rest.
I met people from England, Japan, and all over the states. It was such a moving experience to see the vast impact that B.B. King had in the world.
After the funeral, a friend invited me up to Tutwiler, Mississippi to see a community outreach program teaching young kids the blues. They came every week to learn. Some of you may recognize Tutwiler as the place where W.C. Handy first heard the blues. There wasn’t enough money to give everyone an instrument, so in true-blue fashion, over a dozen young children under 13 shared guitars, drums, and whatever instruments they had to make music and play the blues, just like B.B. would have wanted.
