Tennessee Ernie Ford

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.

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. Furry opened for The Rolling Stones, most notably on July 4, 1975, at Memphis' Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. As a Memphis blues legend, he was invited to perform by the band, with Keith Richards reportedly a fan, and he played in front of over 50,000 people before the Stones took the stage.

popular name: Sam Phillips

date_of_death: July 30, 2003

age: 80

cause_of_death: Respiratory failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Sam Phillips was one of the true musical pioneers of the 20th century. A man who redefined the cultural landscape by producing and engineering local talent in his modest studio and distributing the results on his own Sun Records label. And while he may have only had moderate results with such discoveries as Johnny Cash, Howlin' Wolf, BB King and Roy Orbison, he became a legend recording and producing Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and, of course, Elvis Presley. In the end, Sam was one of the main people responsible for breaking down the barriers between white and black music, melding country with blues, and creating the genre that we now refer to as rock & roll.