Denver blues singer Erica Brown sang renditions of Big Mama Thornton’s music at the Fields to Fame educational event hosted by the Wiregrass Blues Society. Photo by Adam Kamerer.

The Mission To Bring Blues Legend Big Mama Thornton Home To Dale County

By Adam Kamerer

 

The Wiregrass Blues Society held Fields to Fame: The Path to Influence, an educational event honoring Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, at the Carver Museum in Dothan on the evening of Saturday, April 2 and again at Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Ariton on Sunday afternoon. The event was made possible by a grant from the Alabama Humanities Alliance.

The keynote speaker at the weekend event was Alabama blues researcher and blues musician Debbie Bond, joined by panelists Gil Anthony, blues radio legend and Erica Brown, a Denver blues singer spearheading the effort to relocate Big Mama Thornton’s remains. Michael Spörke, the preeminent scholar on Big Mama Thornton’s life and the author of the biography Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music, joined via Zoom from Germany.

Born in Ariton, Big Mama Thornton was a blues singer, harmonica player, drummer, and comedian who famously recorded “Hound Dog” three years before Elvis Presley popularized the song. She also wrote “Ball ‘n’ Chain,” popularized by Janis Joplin. She was an international star, playing shows all across America and Europe. Big Mama Thornton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984.

Historical video footage of Thornton’s performances were shown at the Fields to Fame event. Guests enjoyed live renditions of Thornton’s music performed by Erica Brown, Debbie Bond, Rick Asherson, and Julian Peterson.

A major topic of discussion at the Fields to Fame event was the goal of giving Big Mama Thornton a place in Ariton to honor her. “Elvis Presley has Graceland and Janis Joplin has Port Arthur. There should be a place to honor Big Mama Thornton in her hometown,” says Spörke.

Erica Brown, a blues singer from Denver, agrees. Brown is a singer, songwriter, and recording artist who considers Big Mama Thornton among her greatest influences. “She comes to me at the oddest times,” says Brown. Brown, whose legal name is Willie Mae Brown, is working on a tribute album to Big Mama Thornton titled “Willie Mae Sings Willie Mae.”

Brown spoke about the Big Mama Thornton Reburial Trust, a project to repatriate Willie Mae Thornton’s remains from a shared grave in Inglewood, California. Thornton suffered financial hardship in her later years; when she passed in 1984 in a Los Angeles boarding house, she was buried alongside two strangers, Cotelia Williams and Kenny V. Barton. 

Brown says repatriating Thornton’s remains is a big undertaking. “We have a lot of work to do. We have to find out who owns that plot,” says Brown. The Southern California Blues Society helped pay for Big Mama Thornton’s funeral, so it’s possible that the Society owns the plot. “It could also be owned by the family of one of the other two people buried there, or it might belong to the City of Los Angeles, which is a different matter altogether.”

Identifying family members of Big Mama Thornton -- and the families of the two people interred with Thornton -- is a massive part of the project. Several members of Thornton’s family attended the event at Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Ariton. Thornton may have had a son who entered state custody; he has never been identified.

Of course, there is also the question of whether the remains are in a state conducive to reburial. “We may have to do some ground-penetrating radar to determine the state of the remains,” says Brown. Much depends on the structure of the grave -- if Big Mama Thornton is buried beneath another person who cannot be exhumed, that greatly complicates efforts.

Brown says addressing the re-burial of the other individuals who share Thornton’s plot is another important component. “I would not want to dishonor those people who rest with her. They were people with histories and stories and they deserve to be honored too,” says Brown. Present plans would have Cotelia Williams and Kenny V. Barton reinterred in their present plot with a new marker after Big Mama Thornton’s remains are relocated.

Where to rebury Big Mama Thornton’s remains is still a matter of discussion. Although she may be reburied in California, where she lived at the end of the life, there is a strong push to bring her back to Ariton, her hometown. “It needs to happen,” says Brown. “She deserves her own place.”

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