User:Frank Prchal/sandbox

I owe the authors of Blues: A Regional Experience an apology for my previous comment. The source of the incorrect information that Milton Sparks died in 1963 was a Blues Unlimited magazine article published in 1983, which has been reprinted in a book, also called Blues Unlimited, published in 2015. The authors interviewed someone who, I guess, may or may not have been the Sparks Brothers' Uncle Aaron. To the article's credit, it mentions that Uncle Aaron's wife and relatives wouldn't vouch for his story. They also talked to Milton Sparks' wife Mary by telephone, as she wouldn't agree to an in-person interview, and she evidently went along with Sparks having died in 1963. Interestingly, she told them that Sparks' sister, Jimmie Lee, was living in Alaska at that time - which is something I heard Sparks tell Henry Townsend when Henry inquired about her. I wrote a letter to the book's editor Bill Greensmith with a more detailed description of my meeting Sparks and several other times I remember Henry mentioning Sparks as among the living and Greensmith was kind enough to phone me back. He said that while he doesn't disbelieve me, there exists a 1963 death certificate for a Milton Sparks, signed by his wife Mary. Admittedly, I have no corroborating evidence, but I honestly don't see how I could be mistaken or confused about this. Oh well, we have their music and that's what's important.