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: Rory Gallagher

date_of_death: June 14, 1995

age: 47

cause_of_death: Staphylococcal infection (MRSA) following a liver transplant

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: One of Europe's great guitar players, Rory Gallagher's single-minded dedication to the blues and refusal to change his style for radio success forever relegated him to small clubs and the college tour circuit. Born in Ballyshannon, Ireland Gallagher formed his first band, Taste, in 1968. A blend of heavy metal power chords and American blues, Taste recorded several well-received on the ATCO record label. With so few Irish rock bands apart from Van Morrison and Them, Taste began to garner critical and popular acclaim touring with Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Yes, Cream and Blind Faith before disbanding under a cloud of financial mismanagement. Gallagher continued as a solo act, touring the U.S. no less than 25 times. Voted Musician of the Year by Melody Maker magazine in 1972, Gallagher's popularity dropped considerably over the next decade. In 1994, during a small tour of Europe clubs and college gigs, Gallagher fell seriously ill in very short order and underwent a liver transplant in 1995. He died of a massive infection while still recuperating in the hospital. Upon his death, he was laid to rest in St. Oliver's Cemetery, Cork Ireland.

popular name: J.B. Lenoir

date_of_death: April 29, 1967

age: 38

cause_of_death: Internal bleeding (untreated) after an auto accident

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Monticello area native J. B. Lenoir was a distinctive blues artist, in both his high-pitched singing style and the candid political critiques in many of his song lyrics and is best remembered for his 1955 hit “Mama, Talk to Your Daughter". He died on April 29, 1967, in Urbana, Illinois, at the age 38, of internal bleeding related to injuries he had suffered in a car crash three weeks earlier. The 2003 documentary film The Soul of a Man, directed by Wim Wenders as the second installment of Martin Scorsese's series The Blues, explored Lenoir's career, together with those of Skip James and Blind Willie Johnson. In 2011, Lenoir was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.