24 Robert Johnson’s Grave Greenwood, Mississippi

Robert Johnson’s Grave Greenwood, Mississippi

One of the reasons that contemporary church members are less than pleased to have Johnson in their sparse little cemetery is that his grave has become an impromptu shrine for blues pilgrims who drink on the property, leave personal trinkets, guitar picks, empty liquor and beer bottles at the gravestone.

The handwritten note reproduced here on the headstone was found in the papers of Carrie Dodds (Spencer) Thompson, one of Julia’s younger children and Robert’s half-sister who remained with their mother when the family was torn apart in 1909. Carrie helped raise her little brother Robert as Julia moved through the labor camps of the Delta.