User talk:Fieldsofgrass

Fieldsofgrass (talk) 22:57, 7 December 2012 (UTC)Hello there and welcome to my talk page. I am a student in hopes of gaining insight and sharing it with others on this website. Fieldsofgrass (talk) 22:48, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

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Fieldsofgrass (talk) 21:28, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Memphis Minnie Personal Life
Memphis Minnie was the eldest of thirteen children born to Abe and Gertrude Wells Douglas. Her family called her "Kid" throughout her childhood because she never liked the name "Lizzie" (Garron 14). Her younger sister Daisy is the only surviving sibling of the Douglas family. Daisy and her went to elementary school together in Brunswick, Tennessee at a school called Morning Grove School. At the age of 7, her family moved to Walls Mississippi, a town not too far from Memphis, Tennessee. In 1910, at the age of 13, she ran away from home to live on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee although she would periodically return to her family's farm whenever she ran out of money (Garon 14-15). The majority of the time, she played her guitar and sang on the street corners. Like many other women who were in a financial struggle and who performed in the Beale street Blues scene, Minnie turned to prostitution where she would earn $12 dollars for her services which at the time was a lot of money Her sidewalk performances eventually led to a four year tour of the South with the Ringling Brothers Circus from 1916 to 1920. She was known for being an independent woman who knew how to take care of herself and when a man ever tried fooling her or do her wrong she would go after them with a pocket knife, her guitar, or anything she can get her hands on. She would chew tobacco all the time including whenever she sang or played her guitar. She always had a mug at hand in case she ever wanted to spit. Most of the music she mad was autobiographical; Minnie expressed a lot of her personal life in through her music. In the 1930s when she would finish traveling and performing in several different states, Minnie would go back to friends homes because she didn't really have no place else to go. Minnie's mother died in 1922 when Minnie was 25 years old. Her father decided to move back to Walls Mississippi where he died thirteen years later in 1935. Minnie was married three times. Although there is no evidence of their marriage certificate, her first husband was Will Weldon who she married in the early 1920's. Her second husband was guitarist and mandolin player Joe McCoy (aka Kansas Joe McCoy) whom she married in 1929. That same year, her and Kansas Joe McCoy began to perform together. They were discovered by a talent scout of Columbia Records in front of a barber shop where they were playing for dimes (Garon 24). Together, they went to New York to record their music and this is when she decided to change her name to Memphis Minnie. They filed for divorce in 1934 because McCoy became increasingly jealous of Minnie's rise to fame and success. In 1939, she met guitarist Earnest Lawlers (aka Little Son Joe). He became her new musical partner and they married shortly thereafter. Son Joe attributed songs to her including "Key to The World" in which he addresses her as "the woman I got now" and calls her "the key to the world." By the late 1940s, clubs began hiring younger and cheaper artists to play shows at their venues so Columbia began dropping Blues artists including Memphis Minnie. Minnie was not religious and seldom went to church, in fact the only time she would ever go to church was to see Gospel groups perform. She had a stroke in 1960 which made her bound to a wheelchair for the rest of her life which ended on August 6 of 1973. The home she once lived in still exists today at 1355 Adelaide Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Sauer, Steve. "Former home of Led Zeppelin inspiration Memphis Minnie wastes away." Goldmine 10 Sept. 2010: 55. General OneFile. Web. 29 Nov. 2012./ref>