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Thanks to B.B. King’s relentless touring schedule – appearing in 342 shows in 1956 – he was known worldwide as “The King of the Blues.” He reworked a 1951 blues song, “The Thrill is Gone,” lifting it to a Grammy award in 1970.
King considered Indianola his hometown and the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened there in 2008 in an old cotton gin in which he had worked in the 1940s. Thousands of artifacts, films, clothes and instruments from his life as a star illustrate King’s role as a musical ambassador during racially charged times.
He was buried in the museum’s memorial garden in 2015.
– Chris Schroder, The 100 Companies