Bessie Smith (1895-1937)

Bessie (Elizabeth) Smith (July 9, 1892 or April 15, 1894 — September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer. Sometimes referred to as "The Empress of the Blues", Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s . She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.

On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her lover (and Lionel Hampton's uncle), Richard Morgan, was driving; it is thought that he may have fallen asleep at the wheel or that he misjudged the speed of a slow-moving truck ahead of him. Tire marks at the scene suggested that Morgan tried to avoid the truck by driving around its left side but he hit the rear of the truck side-on at high speed. The tailgate of the truck sheared off the wooden roof of Smith's old Packard. Smith, who was in the passenger seat—probably with her right arm or elbow out the window—took the full brunt of the impact. Morgan escaped with no major injuries.

Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale's Afro-American Hospital where her right arm was amputated. She did not regain consciousness, and died that morning. Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia on Monday October 4, 1937. Her body was originally laid out at Upshur's funeral home, but as word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community the body had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday October 3.  It was attended by about seven thousand people, according to contemporary newspaper reports. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania. The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a new tombstone was placed, paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who, as a child, had done housework for Smith.

The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, was the site of the dedication of the fourth historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. (Source)