Pee Wee Crayton

Birth Name:

Connie Curtis Crayton

Birth Date:

December 18, 1914

Birth Place:

Rockdale, Texas

Death Date:

June 25, 1985

Place of Death:

Los Angeles, California

Age:

Cause of Death:

Heart attack

Cemetery Name:

Inglewood Memorial Park

Claim to Fame:

Music

Pee Wee Crayton was a Texas born blues guitarist who first took up the electric blues guitar after he moved to California in 1935. In Oakland, Crayton joined Texas-born bluesman T-Bone Walker. Throughout the forties and early fifties he performed in blues clubs along the Pacific Coast and toured the nation with his own band. Crayton also performed with Roy Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter, Big Joe Turner, Red Callender, and Gatemouth Brown. He played the Apollo Theatre and the Savoy Ballroom, and went on tour in package shows with Roy Milton, Dinah Washington, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, and Big Maybelle. He is best remembered by blues fans as having written two songs that achieved moderate success, “Blues After Hours” and “The Texas Hop.” Crayton’s legendary status brought him renewed attention and several albums and festival appearances in later years and his periodic guitar battles with longtime friend T-Bone Walker always made headlines. Crayton died in Los Angeles just after returning from a triumphant return to his hometown of Austin to play at Antone’s.

Fun Fact

Pee Wee Crayton has the distinction of being the first blues guitarist to use a Fender Stratocaster.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Inglewood Memorial Park

720 E Florence Avenue

Inglewood, California, 90301

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Inglewood Memorial Park in Inglewood, California

Grave Location:

Cascade Gardens Mausoleum, Crypt 180

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery make your way to the very center of the cemetery to Cascade Gardens. Directly across from B Plot are the outdoor mausoleums. The final resting place of Pee Wee Crayton can be found overlooking the road, two rows from the bottom.