Al Jackson Jr.

popular name: Scrapper Blackwell

date_of_death: October 7, 1962

age: 59

cause_of_death: Murdered (solved but no arrest)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Scrapper Blackwell, together with Leroy Carr are arguably the two most underrated blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. What is undeniable is the two together created some of the most recorded blues classics including How Long, How Long Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama and When the Sun Goes Down

popular name: Big Joe Turner

date_of_death: November 24, 1985

age: 74

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Big Joe Turner, a 300-pound legend who learned to sing the blues as a Kansas City junkman and transformed decades of urban black music into the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. Turner sang rhythm and blues songs such as “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” “Corrine Corrina” and “Lucille” that became the foundation of a new genre of music when white singers such as Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and the Comets popularized them for audiences of white teen-agers in the mid-1950s. The music took the name rock ‘n’ roll because those words appeared in the lyrics of several blues songs.

popular name: Tex Williams

date_of_death: October 11, 1985

age: 68

cause_of_death: Pancreatic cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Tex Williams was an American country music singer, songwriter, bandleader and occasional film actor. He is best known for his 1949 hit "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)," which became a major crossover success. Tex Williams, along with Spade Cooley and Bob Wills, was among the most popular bandleaders in the musical genre known as "western swing" in the 1940s and 1950s. Williams began his career in music in the late 1930s, playing in local bands. After serving in World War II, he joined the Spade Cooley Orchestra, where he gained considerable recognition. He later formed his own band, Tex Williams and His Western Caravan, which helped establish his career. In the 1950s, Williams moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to record and perform. Williams' other successes included the cover of a Bob Wills' classic, 'That's What I Like About The West', and also 'Never Trust A Woman', 'Don't Telephone, Don't Telegraph, Tell A Woman', 'Suspicion' and 'Talking Boogie'. Tex's band was a frequent guest on numerous radio and TV programs in the 1950s, including the Grand Ole Opry, Spike Jones, Dinah Shore, the Jo Stafford Show and National Barn Dance. His band split up in 1965 because, as he said, he 'had no use for a band. When you have a band, you have to keep those guys working.' He continued to perform and record throughout his life, although his fame was mostly rooted in his earlier work. Tex's constant smoke, smoke, smoke of cigarettes finally caught up with him, and he died of lung and pancreatic cancer in 1985. He was laid to rest in Eternal Valley Memorial Park, Newall, California.