Big Joe Turner

AKA:
Boss of the Blues
Birth Name:
Joseph Vernon Turner Jr.
Birth Date:
May 18, 1911
Birth Place:
Kansas City, Missouri
Death Date:
November 24, 1985
Place of Death:
Daniel Freeman Hospital, Inglewood, California
Age:
74
Cause of Death:
Heart failure
Cemetery Name:
Roosevelt Memorial Park Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
Music
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.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Roosevelt Memorial Park Cemetery

18255 S Vermont Avenue

Gardena, California, 90248

USA

North America

Grave Location:

Section 3358, Space 4

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery from the Vermont Street entrance, drive into the cemetery and stay to the right. Drive 300 feet and park at Marker 3355 (as seen on the right-hand curb). Walk four rows into the section on your right to the final resting place of the Boss of the Blues.

Grave Location GPS

33.86525,-118.2940497

Photos:

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Read More About Big Joe Turner:

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Booker Little Jr.

popular name: Booker Little Jr.

date_of_death: October 5, 1961

age: 23

cause_of_death: Complications from uremia caused by kidney failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Booker Little, twenty-three year-old composer, arranger and trumpet player has lately come to demonstrate, in recordings and as the musical director of the Max Roach group, a talent that was taken too early. When he died suddenly at the age of 23 he was one of the most promising jazz trumpeters working with Max Roach, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. After years of physical pain, Little died of complications resulting from kidney failure on October 5, 1961, in New York City at the age 23. He was survived by his wife, two sons Booker T. III and Larry Cornelius, and two daughters Cornelia and Ana Dorsey.

Furry Lewis

popular name: Furry Lewis

date_of_death: September 14, 1981

age: 88

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: A notable guitarist in both the bottleneck and finger-picking styles, Furry was a country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee whose greatest productivity came late in life during the folk blues revival of the 1960s.

Albert King

popular name: Albert King

date_of_death: December 21, 1992

age: 69

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Standing at six-foot-four, 300-pounds King was able to bend notes farther and more powerfully than almost any other guitarist, and his records influenced a generation bluesman from Eric Clapton to Duane Allman and, of course, Stevie Ray Vaughn.

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